Environmental Health Research Division, National Institute of Environmental Research, Incheon 22733, Korea.
School of Environmental Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02546, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Mar 18;17(6):1988. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17061988.
There has been an increasing need for the risk assessment of external environmental hazards in children because they are more sensitive to hazardous chemical exposure than adults. Therefore, the development of general exposure factors is required for appropriate risk assessment in Korean children. This study aimed to determine the general exposure factors among Korean children aged ≤18 years. We developed the recommended exposure factors across five categories: physiological variables, inhalation rates, food and drinking water intake, time-activity patterns, and soil and dust ingestion. National databases were used, and direct measurements and questionnaire surveys of representative samples were performed to calculate the inhalation rate, water intake, and soil ingestion rate. With regard to the time-activity patterns, the daily inhalation rates ranged from 9.49 m/day for children aged 0-2 years to 14.98 m/day for those aged 16-18 years. This study found that Korean children spent an average of 22.64 h indoors, 0.63 h outdoors, and 0.73 h in-transit on weekdays. The general exposure factors of Korean children were studied for the first time, and these results could be used to assess children's exposure and risk. They also suggest the differences compared with the results of international results.
由于儿童对外界环境危害的敏感性高于成人，因此对儿童进行环境危害风险评估的需求日益增加。因此，需要制定针对韩国儿童的一般暴露因素，以进行适当的风险评估。本研究旨在确定≤18 岁韩国儿童的一般暴露因素。我们制定了五类推荐暴露因素：生理变量、吸入率、食物和饮用水摄入量、时-活动模式以及土壤和灰尘摄入。使用了国家数据库，并对代表性样本进行了直接测量和问卷调查，以计算吸入率、水摄入量和土壤摄入量。关于时-活动模式，0-2 岁儿童的每日吸入率为 9.49m/天，16-18 岁儿童的吸入率为 14.98m/天。本研究发现，韩国儿童在工作日平均有 22.64 小时在室内、0.63 小时在室外和 0.73 小时在交通中。本研究首次对韩国儿童的一般暴露因素进行了研究，这些结果可用于评估儿童的暴露和风险。它们还表明与国际研究结果存在差异。
