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Personal exposure monitoring wearing protocol compliance: An initial assessment of quantitative measurement

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 22, pages 274–280 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Personal exposure sampling provides the most accurate and representative assessment of exposure to a pollutant, but only if measures are implemented to minimize exposure misclassification and reduce confounders that may cause misinterpretation of the collected data. Poor compliance with personal sampler wearing protocols can create positive or negative biases in the reported exposure concentrations, depending on proximity of the participant or the personal sampler to the pollutant source when the monitor was not worn as instructed. This paper presents an initial quantitative examination of personal exposure monitor wearing protocol compliance during a longitudinal particulate matter personal exposure monitoring study of senior citizens of compromise health in North Carolina. Wearing compliance varied between participants because of gender or employment status, but not longitudinally or between cohorts. A minimum waking wearing compliance threshold, 0.4 for this study of senior citizens, is suggested to define when personal exposure measurements are representative of a participant's exposure. The ability to define a minimum threshold indicates data weighting techniques may be used to estimate a participant's exposure assuming perfect protocol compliance.

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Acknowledgements

The US Environmental Protection Agency, through its Office of Research and Development, partially funded the research described here through Contract 68-D-99-021 (RTI International), EP-D-04-065 and EP-D-68-00-206 (Alion Science and Technology), and EP-D-04-068 (Battelle Columbus Laboratories). Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for use. Carry Croghan and Carvin Stevens of the US EPA are acknowledged for their assistance in data validation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Phil Lawless & Charles Rodes

  2. US EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Jonathan Thornburg & Ron Williams

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  1. Phil Lawless
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  2. Jonathan Thornburg
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  3. Charles Rodes
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  4. Ron Williams
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Correspondence to Ron Williams.

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Lawless, P., Thornburg, J., Rodes, C. et al. Personal exposure monitoring wearing protocol compliance: An initial assessment of quantitative measurement. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 22, 274–280 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2012.8

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