Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, USA.
Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taiwan.
Environ Res. 2021 May;196:110923. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110923. Epub 2021 Mar 8.
Rising temperatures due to climate change are expected to impact human adaptive response, including changes to home cooling and ventilation patterns. These changes may affect air pollution exposures via alteration in residential air exchange rates, affecting indoor infiltration of outdoor particles. We conducted a field study examining associations between particle infiltration and temperature to inform future studies of air pollution health effects.
We measured indoor fine particulate matter (PM) in Atlanta in 60 homes (810 sampling-days). Indoor-outdoor sulfur ratios were used to estimate particle infiltration, using central site outdoor sulfur concentrations. Linear and mixed-effects models were used to examine particle infiltration ratio-temperature relationships, based on which we incorporated projected meteorological values (Representative Concentration Pathways intermediate scenario RCP 4.5) to estimate particle infiltration ratios in 20-year future (2046-2065) and past (1981-2000) scenarios.
The mean particle infiltration ratio in Atlanta was 0.70 ± 0.30, with a 0.21 lower ratio in summer compared to transition seasons (spring, fall). Particle infiltration ratios were 0.19 lower in houses using heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems compared to those not using HVAC. We observed significant associations between particle infiltration ratios and both linear and quadratic models of ambient temperature for homes using natural ventilation and those using HVAC. Future temperature was projected to increase by 2.1 °C in Atlanta, which corresponds to an increase of 0.023 (3.9%) in particle infiltration ratios during cooler months and a decrease of 0.037 (6.2%) during warmer months.
We estimated notable changes in particle infiltration ratio in Atlanta for different 20-year periods, with differential seasonal patterns. Moreover, when stratified by HVAC usage, increases in future ambient temperature due to climate change were projected to enhance seasonal differences in PM infiltration in Atlanta. These analyses can help minimize exposure misclassification in epidemiologic studies of PM, and provide a better understanding of the potential influence of climate change on PM health effects.
气候变化导致的气温上升预计将影响人类的适应反应，包括家庭降温方式和通风模式的改变。这些变化可能会通过改变住宅空气交换率来影响空气污染暴露，从而影响室外颗粒物质进入室内。我们进行了一项实地研究，考察了颗粒物渗透与温度之间的关系，为未来研究空气污染对健康的影响提供信息。
我们在亚特兰大的 60 户家庭（810 个采样日）中测量了室内细颗粒物（PM）。利用中心站点的室外硫浓度，采用室内外硫比来估算颗粒物渗透量。基于线性和混合效应模型，我们研究了颗粒物渗透比与温度之间的关系，并根据预测的气象值（代表性浓度途径中间情景 RCP4.5），估算了 20 年未来（2046-2065 年）和过去（1981-2000 年）情景下的颗粒物渗透比。
亚特兰大的平均颗粒物渗透比为 0.70±0.30，夏季比过渡季节（春季、秋季）低 0.21。与不使用暖通空调系统的房屋相比，使用暖通空调系统的房屋的颗粒物渗透比低 0.19。我们观察到，对于使用自然通风的房屋和使用暖通空调系统的房屋，颗粒物渗透比与环境温度的线性和二次模型之间存在显著关联。预计亚特兰大的未来温度将升高 2.1°C，这对应于较冷月份颗粒物渗透比增加 0.023（3.9%），较暖月份减少 0.037（6.2%）。
我们估计了亚特兰大不同 20 年期间颗粒物渗透比的显著变化，且具有不同的季节性模式。此外，按照暖通空调使用情况分层，气候变化导致的未来环境温度升高预计会增加亚特兰大 PM 渗透的季节性差异。这些分析有助于减少 PM 流行病学研究中的暴露分类错误，并更好地了解气候变化对 PM 健康影响的潜在影响。
