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Estimation of Ultrafine Particle Respiratory Deposition Using Mobile Aerosol Lung Deposition Apparatus (MALDA)
WEI-CHUNG SU, Jinho Lee, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Abstract Number: 42
Working Group: Health-Related Aerosols
Abstract
Exposure to ultrafine particles has been and continues to be an essential occupational and environmental health issue. However, due to the limitation of traditional experimental methods, it is very difficult to acquire ultrafine particle respiratory deposition data in human airways. This study employed a newly developed and upgraded experimental approach, Mobile Aerosol Lung Deposition Apparatus (MALDA), to estimate the respiratory deposition of ultrafine particles in main human airway regions. The unique MALDA consists of a set of realistic human airway replicas including a complete head airway (nasal and oral airways), tracheobronchial airways down to the 11th lung generation, and a representative alveolar section. The upgraded MALDA was first evaluated in the laboratory for performance and then deployed in an indoor real-life setting to estimate the ultrafine particle respiratory deposition associated with passive vaping. Experimental data acquired showed that the MALDA approach could provide efficient and systematic ultrafine particle respiratory deposition data in the human respiratory tract. The experimental data aligned closely with conventional respiratory deposition curves. Results obtained from this study demonstrated a great promise on the future application of MALDA in occupational and environmental health related exposure assessments for acquiring on-site ultrafine particle respiratory deposition data.