The importance of exposure in addressing current and emerging air quality issues

Abstract

The air quality issues that we face today and will face in the future are becoming increasingly more complex and require an improved understanding of human exposure to be effectively addressed. The objectives of this paper are (1) to discuss how concepts of human exposure and exposure science and should be applied to improve air quality management practices, and (2) to show how air quality modeling tools can be used to improve exposures estimates used for understanding associations between air quality and human health. Data from a large human exposure monitoring study is presented to demonstrate the value of exposure in understanding important air quality issues, such as health effects associated with exposure to components of particulate matter (PM), to PM of different size fractions (coarse and ultrafine), and to air pollution in near roadway environments. Various approaches for improving estimates of exposure via application of air quality modeling are discussed and results from example modeling applications are presented. These air quality modeling approaches include: the integration of regional scale eulerian air quality models with local scale gaussian dispersion models; the fusion of modeled estimates with air quality observations; the integration of air quality and human exposure modeling tools; and the use of exposure factors, such as housing ventilation, to adjust modeled estimates of ambient air quality.