AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Comparison of Personal Sampling and Robotic Sampling Platform to Estimate Personal Exposures in Young Children
JESSICA SAGONA, Marta Hernandez, Zuocheng Wang, Maya Ramagopal, Stuart Shalat, Gediminas Mainelis, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Abstract Number: 162 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is considered one of potential causes for asthma development, but measuring personal exposure in young children is often difficult due to the weight and bulkiness of the sampling equipment. To address this concern, the Pre-toddler Inhalable Particulate Environmental Robotic sampler (PIPER), was developed. PIPER is designed to mimic the average movements and breathing height of children up to age 3 as they play, including sitting, standing, and running, to provide a realistic proxy for personal exposure to PM when using personal sampling equipment is not feasible. Our earlier studies have consistently shown that PIPER measures higher PM concentrations than traditional stationary samplers.
As further development of the method, we compared filter-based PM mass concentrations measured by PIPER to those from samplers worn by 2-year old children. 68 homes were sampled. Each child wore a backpack with the pump and Button aerosol sampler for two hours while playing as normal. The child then left the room and PIPER ran for two hours with two Button samplers operated at 4 and 10 L/min. Results show that PIPER’s PM mass measurements are systematically lower than those from the backpack. This may be in part due to the large variations in activity level among 2 year olds. Correlations between PIPER and personal samplers are highest (r$^2 = 0.41) for children who spent less than a third of the time standing and running, suggesting that PIPER is most accurate for children who spend more time playing on the floor. Additionally, the mass concentrations measured by Button samplers on PIPER (operated at 4 and 10 L/min) were highly correlated (r$^2 = 0.84). Further work is needed to determine the relative importance of factors that may contribute to the differences seen between the two samplers.