Personal air pollutant exposures are a critical link between air pollution and adverse human health effects and therefore a key variable to conduct epidemiologic studies. Traditional approaches for measuring air quality based on fixed measurements are inadequate for personal exposure monitoring. To combat this issue, the use of small, portable air pollution monitoring technologies is increasing, with researchers and individuals employing portable and mobile methods to obtain more spatially and temporally representative air pollution data.
Personal exposure to black carbon, particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide in the Paris region measured by portable sensors worn by volunteers
This paper published in Toxics by Languille et al. quantified the air pollution exposures on an individual level using portable sensors and investigated exposure contributions from the environments that the participants visited. This study found prominent impact of the different environments, such as polluted indoor environment, and reaffirmed that the traditional ambient monitoring stations are not a proper surrogate for personal exposure assessment.
Daily association of air pollution and pediatric asthma risk using the biomedical real-time health evaluation (BREATHE) kit
Another paper in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health by Hao et al. employed a wearable, sensor-based informatics platform to monitor and model a suite of environmental exposures and potential acute asthma triggers at the personal level. The findings revealed significant associations of personal air pollution exposure with pediatric asthma outcomes and demonstrated the potential of informatics and wearable sensor technologies at collecting highly resolved, contextual, and personal exposure data.
This issue’s Newsletter Committee:
Editor | Kerry Kelly, University of UtahSenior Assistant Editor | Krystal Pollitt, Yale UniversityJunior Assistant Editor | Justice Archer, University of BristolGuest Contributor | Dong Gao