Lung Deposition Sampler for Inhalable Aerosol

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究的目标是开发一种更强大的暴露评估工具，直接测量可吸入颗粒物在人类肺部的沉积。吸入的颗粒物并不总是沉积在肺部。因此，一种估计可吸入颗粒物在人类肺部的特定大小沉积的装置，将通过提供更具生理学相关性的剂量测量方法来提高风险评估的能力，从而提高工作场所的吸入危险。这项研究将建立在关于气雾剂吸入和肺沉积的大量现有文献的基础上。通过将这项技术集成到现有的可吸入采样盒(即国际移民组织采样盒)中，我们将能够再现气溶胶的吸入性和沉降量，从而能够进行更现实和可靠的危险评估。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，使用以前经过验证的外壳排除了昂贵的吸入效率测试的需要，这些测试通常与气溶胶采样器的开发相关。这项拟议研究的意义在于建立了一种更具生理学意义的吸入气雾剂剂量度量标准。与剂量更密切相关的测量将提高我们将职业性呼吸系统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，以减少工作场所空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处理现有和新出现的气溶胶危害的长长清单，并使它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以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)，在发展中国家国内和国际上都是如此。

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.