Modeling Exposure Reduction for Personal Level Interventions

Through the APIC-ESTEE (Air Pollution Impacts on Cardiopulmonary Disease in Beijing: An integrated study of Exposure Science, Toxicogenomics and Environmental Epidemiology) project, we have developed a model for the reduction of personal exposures to air pollution to assess the health impacts of interventions such as face mask wearing and use of indoor air purifiers. The model accounts for population level time activity patterns and micro-environmental concentrations. A preliminary analysis for Beijing used data on time activity patterns based on Chinese exposure factors; indoor and outdoor fine particulate (PM2.5) concentrations came from residential home studies, a study of public indoor environments, and a feasibility personal monitoring study. In-transit concentrations were estimated as 110% of ambient concentrations. Three intervention scenarios were modelled – wearing a highly effective or a poorly effective facemask whenever a person is outdoors or in transit and use of an air purifier in the...