Personal Exposure To Carbonyls Be Predicted Using Residential Indoor And Outdoor Concentrations?

As a part of the Relationships of Indoor, Outdoor, and Personal Air (RIOPA) study, residential indoor, outdoor, and personal exposure concentrations of ten carbonyls were simultaneously measured in 234 homes selected from three US cities. In this paper, we examine the feasibility of using residential indoor and outdoor concentrations to predict personal exposures to carbonyls. In our linear regression models, we had measured personal exposure concentration as dependent variable and each of the three potential personal exposure predictors as independent variable. The three potential predictors were indoor concentrations, outdoor concentrations, and time-weighted residential exposures derived from indoor and outdoor concentrations. Results indicate that although residential indoor concentrations provide the best. estimates of measured personal exposure concentrations among the three predictors, more information is needed to explain the variation of personal exposure. Time-weighted exposure incorporating measured residential indoor and outdoor concentrations didn't show a significant improvement for the estimation of personal exposure compared to simply using indoor concentrations as the predictor.