Regional deposited dose in the human respiratory tract using different particulate metrics

Abstract

The objective of the current study was to calculate the deposited dose rate in the human respiratory tract arising from particle number (PN) and particle mass (PM) measurements. A main objective was the investigation of deposition pattern and characteristics of the two metrics in the human respiratory tract. The dose rate was estimated for residents at a suburban background location (Chania, Greece). The total dose rate showed two peaks, one in the morning (1.6 × 109 particles/h at 7:00-8:00) and the other one at night (2.1 × 109 particles/h at 21:00-22:00), during the warm period, while the cold period showed two peaks, morning (2.0 × 109 particles/h at 9:00-10:00) and afternoon (3.6 × 109 particles/h at 18:00-19:00). The peaks during the warm period were associated with traffic emissions, whereas the peaks during the cold period were associated with both heating and traffic emissions. A higher dose rate of PN10 was found in the alveolar region while for PM10 it was found in the extrathoracic region. These findings are linked with increased contribution of ultrafine and coarse particles to PN10 (65%-78% and 54%-62% for cold and warm periods, respectively) and PM10 (63% and 55% for cold and warm periods, respectively) concentrations, respectively. The current study showed the importance to use both number and mass aerosol metrics for determining the human exposure and regional dose and their related health effects. The novelty of the current study is the simultaneous measurements of the two particles metrics and the full particle size distributions to make accurate estimates of regional deposited dose.