title: Indoor aerosols: from personal exposure to risk assessment.
abstract: Motivated by growing considerations of the scale, severity, and risks associated with human exposure to indoor particulate matter, this work reviewed existing literature to: (i) identify state-of-the-art experimental techniques used for personal exposure assessment; (ii) compare exposure levels reported for domestic/school settings in different countries (excluding exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and particulate matter from biomass cooking in developing countries); (iii) assess the contribution of outdoor background vs indoor sources to personal exposure; and (iv) examine scientific understanding of the risks posed by personal exposure to indoor aerosols. Limited studies assessing integrated daily residential exposure to just one particle size fraction, ultrafine particles, show that the contribution of indoor sources ranged from 19% to 76%. This indicates a strong dependence on resident activities, source events and site specificity, and highlights the importance of indoor sources for total personal exposure. Further, it was assessed that 10-30% of the total burden of disease from particulate matter exposure was due to indoor-generated particles, signifying that indoor environments are likely to be a dominant environmental factor affecting human health. However, due to challenges associated with conducting epidemiological assessments, the role of indoor-generated particles has not been fully acknowledged, and improved exposure/risk assessment methods are still needed, together with a serious focus on exposure control.
authors.affiliation: International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia; Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Morawska
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Afshari
authors.forename: G N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buonanno
authors.forename: C Y H
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hänninen
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Isaxon
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Jayaratne
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pasanen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Salthammer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Waring
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wierzbicka
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis*; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols
keywords: Burden of disease from particulate matter exposure; Domestic indoor particulate matter; Indoor particulate matter; Methods for personal exposure assessment; Personal exposure; School indoor particulate matter