Introduction to the workshop on human exposure assessment: Monitoring and modeling

Abstract

Early air pollution studies employed large, bulky, noisy instruments fixed in a single outdoor location, often the top of a building, measuring a few inorganic gases and particles. In contrast, present day studies typically employ small, quiet portable instruments capable of accompanying persons on their normal 24h routines and measuring a multitude of organic and inorganic chemicals in the air that they breathe. With regard to study design, early studies were often small and anecdotal in nature, employing a few subjects arbitrarily chosen. Recent studies have recognized the need for a statistically valid sampling scheme and a larger number of subjects to make their results more widely applicable. Furthermore, in these early studies, measurements were usually made in only one environmental medium. Later studies, on the other hand, have often measured air and drinking water simultaneously and have also made measurements of body burden to establish exposure+lose relationships. As indicated above, in recent years the topic of measuring or predicting human exposure to air pollution during normal daily activities has received considerable attention from scientists working in the area of exposure assessment. Although there have been a number of field investigations studying human exposures to environmental pollutants, the data bases obtained and the methods used to monitor and model personal exposures have not been widely published or all critically evaluated. In response to the emerging technical needs of the human exposure assessment field, on 30 September-2 October 1985, a 3-day workshop was organized by the Harvard School of Public Health and by Harvard University, Energy and Environmental Policy Center, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The workshop consisted of presentations and discussions by researchers from academic, government, and private institutions. Among the participants were those who have been involved in the design of major