Human-exposure assessment for airborne pollutants: Advances and opportunities. Final report

Technical Report · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:6991951

Most people in the United States spend more time indoors than outdoors. Yet, many air pollution regulations and risk assessments focus on outdoor air. These often overlook contact with harmful contaminants that may be at their most dangerous concentrations indoors. The report explores the need for strategies to address indoor and outdoor exposures and examines the methods and tools available for finding out where and when significant exposures occur. It includes the following: (1) a conceptual framework and common terminology that investigators from different disciplines can use to make more accurate assessments of human exposure to airborne contaminants; (2) an update of important developments in assessing exposure to airborne contaminants: ambient air sampling and physical chemical measurements, biological markers, questionnaires, time-activity diaries, and modeling; (3) a series of examples of how exposure assessments have been applied--properly and improperly--to public health issues and how the committee's suggested framework can be brought into practice. The report will provide important insights to improve risk assessment, risk management, pollution control, and regulatory programs.

• Research Organization: National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC (United States). Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
• OSTI ID: 6991951
• Report Number(s): PB-92-223247/XAB; ISBN: 0-309-04284-4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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& Toxicology-- Man
560300* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AEROSOLS
AIR POLLUTION
ANIMALS
BIOLOGICAL MARKERS
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ELEMENTS
EPIDEMIOLOGY
FLUIDS
GASES
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
LEAD
MAMMALS
MAN
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METALS
NONMETALS
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
POLLUTION
PRIMATES
RADIATION HAZARDS
RADON
RARE GASES
RESIDUES
RISK ASSESSMENT
SAMPLING
SMOKES
SOLS
SURVEYS
TOBACCO SMOKES
VERTEBRATES