Lung Deposition Sampler for Inhalable Aerosol

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的目标是开发一种更强大的暴露评估工具，直接测量吸入颗粒在人体肺部的沉积。吸入的微粒并不总是沉积在肺里。因此，一种能够估计吸入颗粒在人体肺部的特定尺寸沉积的装置，将通过提供与生理更相关的剂量测量，从而提高风险评估的能力，从而减少工作场所的吸入危害。这项研究将建立在大量关于气溶胶吸入和肺沉积的现有文献的基础上。通过将这项技术集成到现有的可吸入采样盒（即IOM采样盒）中，我们将能够重现气溶胶的可吸入性和沉积性，从而实现更现实和可靠的危害评估。这种集成将有助于行业接受我们的设备，既便宜又不需要购买额外的采样技术。此外，使用先前验证过的外壳可以避免通常与气溶胶采样器开发相关的昂贵的吸入效率测试。本研究的意义在于建立了一种与生理更相关的吸入气溶胶剂量度量。与剂量更密切相关的测量将提高我们将职业性呼吸疾病的发病与特定暴露联系起来的能力，这反过来将允许更有效的干预和控制战略，旨在减少工作场所大气中的特定有毒成分。加强职业流行病学和风险评估的预测能力将有助于监管机构更好地优先考虑现有和新出现的气溶胶危害，并使他们能够建立有针对性的、基于健康的暴露标准。这项研究的结果也可在发展中国家国内和国际上推广到工作场所以外与健康有关的更大范围的空气污染（例如室内空气、环境空气污染）。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this research is to develop a more powerful exposure assessment tool that directly measures the deposition of inhaled particles within the human lung. Inhaled particles do not always deposit in the lung. Therefore, a device that estimates the size-specific deposition of inhaled particles in the human lung will improve the power of risk assessment by providing a more physiologically-relevant measure of dose, and hence, inhalation hazard in the workplace. This research will build on a wide-body of existing literature on aerosol inhalation and lung deposition. By integrating this technology into an existing inhalable sampling cassette, (i.e., the IOM sampling cassette) we will be able to reproduce both aerosol inhalability and deposition, allowing for more realistic and reliable hazard assessment. Such integration will aid industry acceptance of our device, being both inexpensive and requiring no purchase of additional sampling technologies. Additionally, the use of a previously validated housing precludes the need for costly aspiration efficiency tests typically associated with aerosol sampler development. The significance of the proposed research is the establishment a more physiologically relevant metric of inhaled aerosol dose. A measurement more closely related to dose will increase our ability to associate the onset of occupational respiratory diseases with specific exposures, which, in turn, will allow for more efficient intervention and control strategies targeted to reduce specific toxic components of workplace atmospheres. Enhancing the predictive power of occupational epidemiology and risk assessment will help regulating agencies better prioritize the long list of existing and emerging aerosol hazards and allow them to establish targeted, health-based exposure standards. Results from this research can also be translated to the larger realm of health-related air pollution outside of the workplace (e.g., indoor air, ambient air pollution), both nationally and internationally in developing countries.