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A participant-based approach to indoor/outdoor air monitoring in community health studies

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 19, pages 492–501 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Community health studies of traffic-related air pollution have been hampered by the cost and participant burden associated with collecting household-level exposure data. The current study utilized a participant-based approach to collect indoor and outdoor air monitoring data from 92 asthmatic and nonasthmatic children (9–13 years old) enrolled in two concurrent health studies in Detroit, Michigan (Mechanistic Indicators of Childhood Asthma and Detroit Children's Health Study) conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Passive samplers were shipped to participating households and deployed by parents of study participants to collect indoor and outdoor measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including naphthalene. Half of the households deployed VOC and NO2 samplers for 7 days; the other half deployed PAH and NO2 samplers for 2 days and additional PAH samplers for 1 day. Approximately 88% of the households that received air sampling kits completed the air monitoring. Compliance was significantly higher among participants asked to deploy all samplers for 7 days (85%) compared with participants asked to deploy some samplers for 2 days and others for 1 day (56%). The 7-day homes were also more likely to provide usable data (96%) compared with the 1- and 2-day homes (73%). Compliance and providing usable data did not vary between parents of asthmatic versus nonasthmatic study participants and were not reduced among households deploying duplicate samplers. These results suggest that participant-based sampling may be a feasible and cost-effective alternative to traditional exposure assessment approaches that can be applied in future epidemiological and community-based health studies.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to willingness and the diligent efforts of all of the study participants who contributed tremendously to the success of this project. We recognize and greatly appreciate the contributions to this study by Dr. Zhihua Fan and Lin Lin at EOHSI with the preparation and analysis of the passive PAH samplers; Dr. Mike Wolfson and Denise Lamoureux at the Harvard School of Public Health with the preparation and analysis of the NO2 badges; and Larissa Altshul, Brian La Brecque and Jose Valero at the Harvard School of Public Health with the preparation and analyses of the VOC diffusion tubes. We are deeply indebted to James Quackenboss and Kent Thomas at EPA/NERL for their detailed and insightful feedback on draft versions of this manuscript. We also thank colleagues at EPA/NHEERL Pauline Mendola, Ann Williams, Chris Garlington, Elizabeth Sams, Kristen Rappazzo, Peter Stone, Kay Williams, Scott Rhoney, Brooke Heidenfelder, Danelle Lobdell, Sharon Myers, Jeff Inmon, Walter Breyer, as well as Daniel Vallero at EPA/NERL and the EPA/NERL machine shop for their support and assistance during this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Markey Johnson, Edward Hudgens, Gina Andrews, Lucas Neas & Jane Gallagher

  2. US Environmental Protection Agency, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Markey Johnson, Ronald Williams & Halûk Özkaynak

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  1. Markey Johnson
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Correspondence to Markey Johnson.

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Although this work was peer-reviewed by EPA and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official agency policy. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website (http://www.nature.com/jes)

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Johnson, M., Hudgens, E., Williams, R. et al. A participant-based approach to indoor/outdoor air monitoring in community health studies. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 19, 492–501 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2008.39

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