Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes: Placement of Wearable Passive Samplers Alters Exposure Profiles Observed
- 24 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Environmental Science & Technology
- Vol. 55 (6), 3796-3806
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c05522
Abstract
Chemical exposures are a major risk factor for many diseases. Comprehensive characterization of personal exposures is necessary to highlight chemicals of concern and factors that influence these chemical exposure dynamics. For this purpose, wearable passive samplers can be applied to assess longitudinal personal exposures to airborne contaminants. Questions remain regarding the impact of sampler placement at different locations of the body on the exposure profiles observed and how these placements affect the monitoring of seasonal dynamics in exposures. This study assessed personal air contaminant exposure using passive samplers worn in parallel across 32 participant’s wrists, chest, and shoes over 24 h. Samplers were analyzed by thermal desorption gas chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry. Personal exposure profiles were similar for about one-third of the 275 identified chemicals, irrespective of sampler placement. Signals of certain semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) were enhanced in shoes and, to a lesser extent, wrist samplers, as compared to those in chest samplers. Signals of volatile organic compounds were less impacted by sampler placement. Results showed that chest samplers predominantly captured more volatile exposures, as compared to those of particle-bound exposures, which may indicate predominant monitoring of chemicals via the inhalation route of exposure for chest samplers. In contrast, shoe samplers were more sensitive to particle-bound SVOCs. Seventy-one chemicals changed across participants between winter and summer in the same manner for two or more different sampler placements on the body, whereas 122 chemicals were observed to have seasonal differences in only one placement. Hence, the placement in certain cases significantly impacts exposure dynamics observed. This work shows that it is essential in epidemiological studies undertaking exposure assessment to consider the consequence of the placement of exposure monitors.Keywords
This publication has 61 references indexed in Scilit:
- Effects of Residential Indoor Air Quality and Household Ventilation on Preterm Birth and Term Low Birth Weight in Los Angeles County, CaliforniaAmerican Journal of Public Health, 2013
- Applicability Domains for Classification Problems: Benchmarking of Distance to Models for Ames Mutagenicity SetJournal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 2010
- Ultrafine Particle Sampling with the UNC Passive Aerosol SamplerAerosol Science and Technology, 2010
- CAESAR models for developmental toxicityChemistry Central Journal, 2010
- Indoor Air Pollution and Asthma in ChildrenProceedings of the American Thoracic Society, 2010
- Quantitative Structure−Activity Relationship Modeling of Rat Acute Toxicity by Oral ExposureChemical Research in Toxicology, 2009
- Predictive Models for Carcinogenicity and Mutagenicity: Frameworks, State-of-the-Art, and PerspectivesJournal of Environmental Science and Health, Part C, 2009
- A Hierarchical Clustering Methodology for the Estimation of ToxicityToxicology Mechanisms and Methods, 2008
- Assessment of lifetime exposure to trihalomethanes through different routesOccupational and Environmental Medicine, 2006
- Seasonal variations of volatile organic compounds in Edmonton, AlbertaAtmospheric Environment, 1997