Estimation of the Personal Deposited Dose of Particulate Matter and Particle-Bound Metals Using Data from Selected European Cities

Eleftheria Chalvatzaki,Maria Gini,Evangelia Diapouli,Mihalis Lazaridis,Konstantinos Eleftheriadis,Susana Almeida,Eleni Mammi-Galani,Sofia Chatoutsidou

doi:10.3390/atmos9070248

Abstract

The present study focused on the estimation of the personal dose of airborne particles using an exposure dose model (ExDoM2). Input data from three European cities (Athens, Kuopio, Lisbon) were selected to implement the model that calculates the deposited dose and retention of particles in the respiratory tract, the mass transferred to the oesophagus and the absorption to blood as well as the dose for five particle-bound metals. Model results showed that after one day exposure higher deposited dose in the respiratory tract was obtained for Lisbon as a direct consequence of the higher PM concentration measured in this city. Moreover, the activity profile and the physical characteristics of the exposed subject had strong impact on the estimated deposited dose. Thus, light activity corresponded to higher deposited dose compared to no activity as well as an adult male exhibited higher dose, both findings associated with increased inhalation rate. Regarding the internal dose for particle-bound metals higher dose for four out of the five metals was obtained in lungs followed by the muscles for As, the gastrointestinal tract for Cr, the other tissues for Mn, the intestines for Cd and finally for Pb higher dose was found in bones and blood.

Highlights

IntroductionAir pollution associated with airborne particles (especially fine particles) and particle-bound heavy metals has gained great interest in the scientific community [1,2,3,4,5]
Air pollution associated with airborne particles and particle-bound heavy metals has gained great interest in the scientific community [1,2,3,4,5]
Due to the different campaigns incorporated in the present model the particle mass size distribution differs in each city, Athens corresponds to PM6.8, Kuopio to PM10 and Lisbon to PM8

Summary

Introduction

Air pollution associated with airborne particles (especially fine particles) and particle-bound heavy metals has gained great interest in the scientific community [1,2,3,4,5]. Studies [4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13] that focused on PM exposure and the consequent effects on human health associated high concentrations of airborne PM with increased mortality and morbidity. There is evidence that exposure to PM causes adverse health outcomes on human health [14,15] associated predominantly with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases [4,10,16,17]. Several studies [10,16,18,19,20] concluded that exposure to PM2.5 is associated with increased hospital admission due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. As a result of these findings, the European Union (EU) has established air quality standards for PM

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Conclusion