Voliotis Aristeidis, Bezantakos Spyridon, Besis Athanasios, Shao Yunqi, Samara Constantini
Department of Chemistry, Environmental Pollution Control Laboratory, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece; Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, M139PL, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Advanced Integrated Technology Solutions and Services (ADITESS) LTD, Nicosia, 2064, Cyprus; Energy Environment and Water Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, 1645, Cyprus.
Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2021 May;234:113710. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113710. Epub 2021 Feb 19.
To date, little is known about the effective doses of airborne particulate matter (PM) and PM-bound hazardous organic components to the human respiratory tract (HRT). In the light of this, here we provide particle mass dose rates (dose per hour of exposure) of PM and a suite of PM-bound hazardous organic compounds in the HRT for two population age groups (adults & children). More specifically, the mass dose rates of PM and PM-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrated-PAH (NPAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were estimated at two urban sites using a multiple path particle dosimetry model. We find that, in most cases, the total mass doses are following similar variations across sites and seasons as their ambient total concentrations, however their distribution in the HRT is a function of the particle size distributions and the physiological parameters of each age group. More specifically, the majority of the deposited mass of PM and all the chemical components investigated was accumulated in the upper airways instead of the lungs. We further show that children, due to their different physiology, are more susceptible and receive larger fraction of the total mass doses in the deepest parts of the lungs compared to the adults' group. Comparing the traditional method for estimating the inhalation risk, which is based on the ambient concentration of pollutants, and a modified version using the mass dose in the HRT, we find that the former may overestimate the reported risks. The results presented here provide a novel dataset composed by previously undetermined doses of hazardous airborne particulate organic components in the HRT and demonstrate that alternative health risk estimation approaches may capture some variabilities that are traditionally overlooked.
迄今为止，关于空气中颗粒物（PM）及其吸附的有害有机成分对人类呼吸道（HRT）的有效剂量，我们所知甚少。鉴于此，我们在此给出了两个年龄组（成人和儿童）在HRT中PM及一系列吸附在PM上的有害有机化合物的颗粒物质量剂量率（每小时暴露剂量）。更具体地说，我们使用多路径颗粒物剂量测定模型，在两个城市地点估算了PM以及吸附在PM上的多环芳烃（PAH）、硝基多环芳烃（NPAH）、多氯联苯（PCB）、有机氯农药（OCP）和多溴二苯醚（PBDE）的质量剂量率。我们发现，在大多数情况下，总质量剂量在不同地点和季节的变化趋势与其环境总浓度相似，然而它们在HRT中的分布是粒径分布和每个年龄组生理参数的函数。更具体地说，PM以及所有研究的化学成分的沉积质量大部分积累在上呼吸道而非肺部。我们进一步表明，由于生理差异，儿童比成人组更易受影响，并且在肺部最深处接受的总质量剂量占比更大。通过比较基于污染物环境浓度的传统吸入风险评估方法和使用HRT中质量剂量的改进版本，我们发现前者可能高估了报告的风险。此处呈现的结果提供了一个新的数据集，该数据集由HRT中以前未确定剂量的有害空气传播颗粒有机成分组成，并表明替代健康风险评估方法可能捕捉到一些传统上被忽视的变异性。
