Development of TracMyAir Smartphone Application for Modeling Exposures to Ambient PM 2.5 and Ozone

Michael Breen, Catherine Seppanen, Vlad Isakov, Saravanan Arunachalam, Miyuki Breen, James Samet and Haiyan Tong
Additional contact information
Michael Breen: Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
Catherine Seppanen: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, USA
Vlad Isakov: Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
Saravanan Arunachalam: Institute for the Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27517, USA
Miyuki Breen: Office of Research and Development, ORISE/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA
James Samet: Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA
Haiyan Tong: Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-17

Abstract: Air pollution epidemiology studies of ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and ozone (O 3 ) often use outdoor concentrations as exposure surrogates. Failure to account for the variability of the indoor infiltration of ambient PM 2.5 and O 3 , and time indoors, can induce exposure errors. We developed an exposure model called TracMyAir, which is an iPhone application (“app”) that determines seven tiers of individual-level exposure metrics in real-time for ambient PM 2.5 and O 3 using outdoor concentrations, weather, home building characteristics, time-locations, and time-activities. We linked a mechanistic air exchange rate (AER) model, a mass-balance PM 2.5 and O 3 building infiltration model, and an inhaled ventilation model to determine outdoor concentrations (Tier 1), residential AER (Tier 2), infiltration factors (Tier 3), indoor concentrations (Tier 4), personal exposure factors (Tier 5), personal exposures (Tier 6), and inhaled doses (Tier 7). Using the application in central North Carolina, we demonstrated its ability to automatically obtain real-time input data from the nearest air monitors and weather stations, and predict the exposure metrics. A sensitivity analysis showed that the modeled exposure metrics can vary substantially with changes in seasonal indoor-outdoor temperature differences, daily home operating conditions (i.e., opening windows and operating air cleaners), and time spent outdoors. The capability of TracMyAir could help reduce uncertainty of ambient PM 2.5 and O 3 exposure metrics used in epidemiology studies.

Keywords: mobile application; exposure model; inhaled dose; particulate matter; ozone (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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