A Personal Sampler for Assessing Inhaled Nanoparticle Exposures

描述（由申请人提供）：阐明潜在的纳米颗粒暴露与疾病关系需要开发适当的暴露评估方法，因为暴露评估为随后的流行病学和毒理学调查提供了关键输入。缺乏纳米颗粒气溶胶的个人暴露评估方法阻碍了了解纳米颗粒暴露与疾病之间潜在关系的进展。这项工作的目标是开发一种准确、敏感和特定的方法来评估个人暴露于工程纳米颗粒。该方法将评估暴露的吸入途径，从而测量空气中的纳米颗粒浓度。为了量化空气中纳米颗粒的浓度，测量必须能够按尺寸分离气溶胶（仅捕获小于100纳米的颗粒），并根据尺寸分离对这些颗粒进行计数。此外，由于吸入的纳米颗粒严格通过口/鼻途径进入，该方法应面向测量上半身附近的呼吸区浓度。最后，或许也是最重要的一点，该方法必须能够将工程纳米颗粒与其他偶然存在于工作场所和环境空气中的纳米颗粒（即超细颗粒）区分开来。本研究的成功完成将建立一种方法来估计人类在工作环境中暴露于工程纳米颗粒。这种方法对于建立纳米颗粒剂量-反应关系至关重要，因为目前的方法缺乏特异性和敏感性。这项研究的结果也可以在国家和国际上转化为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): Elucidation of potential nanoparticle exposure-disease relationships requires the development of an adequate exposure assessment method, as exposure assessment provides key input into subsequent epidemiologic and toxicological investigation. The absence of a personal exposure assessment method for nanoparticle aerosols prevents progress towards understanding potential nanoparticle exposure-disease relationships. The goal of this work is to develop an accurate, sensitive, and specific method to assess personal exposures to engineered nanoparticles. The method will assess the inhalation route of exposure, and hence, the measurement of nanoparticle concentrations in air. To quantify concentrations of airborne nanoparticles, a measurement must be able to segregate the aerosol by size (to capture only particles smaller than 100 nm) and count these particles following size-segregation. Also, because inhaled nanoparticles enter strictly through the oral/nasal route, the method should be oriented to measure breathing zone concentrations within the vicinity of the upper torso. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the method must be able to distinguish engineered nanoparticles from other incidental nanoparticles (i.e., ultrafine particles) that are ubiquitous in workplace and ambient air. Relevance Successful completion of this research will establish a method to estimate human exposures to engineered nanoparticles in workplace environments. Such a method is critical to the establishment of nanoparticle dose- response relationships, as current methods lack both specificity and sensitivity. 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.