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的关系需要开发一种充分的暴露评估方法，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信息。缺乏针对纳米颗粒气雾剂的个人暴露评估方法阻碍了在理解潜在的纳米颗粒暴露与疾病关系方面的进展。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对工程纳米颗粒的暴露。该方法将评估暴露的吸入途径，从而评估空气中纳米颗粒浓度的测量。为了量化空气中纳米颗粒的浓度，测量必须能够按大小分离气溶胶(仅捕获小于100 nm的颗粒)，并根据大小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腔/鼻腔途径进入，因此该方法应针对上半身附近的呼吸区浓度进行测量。最后，或许也是最重要的是，该方法必须能够将工程纳米颗粒与工作场所和环境空气中普遍存在的其他附带纳米颗粒(即超细颗粒)区分开来。相关性这项研究的成功完成将建立一种评估人类在工作场所环境中接触工程纳米颗粒的方法。这种方法对于纳米颗粒剂量-反应关系的建立至关重要，因为目前的方法缺乏特异性和灵敏度。这项研究的结果也可以转化为工作场所以外与健康相关的空气污染(例如，室内空气、环境空气污染)的更大领域，无论是在国内还是在国际上。

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.