Fine-Scale Modeling of Individual Exposures to Ambient PM2.5, EC, NOx, and CO for the Coronary Artery Disease and Environmental Exposure (CADEE) Study

Abstract

Air pollution epidemiological studies often use outdoor concentrations from central-site monitors as exposure surrogates, which can induce measurement error. The goal of this study was to improve exposure assessments of ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5), elemental carbon (EC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO) for a repeated measurements study with 15 individuals with coronary artery disease in central North Carolina called the Coronary Artery Disease and Environmental Exposure (CADEE) study. We developed a fine-scale exposure modeling approach to determine five tiers of individual-level exposure metrics for PM2.5, EC, NOx, and CO using outdoor concentrations, on-road vehicle emissions, weather, home building characteristics, time-locations, and time-activities. We linked an urban-scale air quality model, residential air exchange rate model, building infiltration model, global positioning system (GPS)-based microenvironment model, and accelerometer-based inhaled ventilation model to determine residential outdoor concentrations (Cout_home, Tier 1), residential indoor concentrations (Cin_home, Tier 2), personal outdoor concentrations (Cout_personal, Tier 3), exposures (E, Tier 4), and inhaled doses (D, Tier 5). We applied the fine-scale exposure model to determine daily 24 h average PM2.5, EC, NOx, and CO exposure metrics (Tiers 1–5) for 720 participant-days across the 25 months of the CADEE study. Daily modeled metrics showed considerable temporal and home-to-home variability of Cout_home and Cin_home (Tiers 1–2) and person-to-person variability of Cout_personal, E, and D (Tiers 3–5). Our study demonstrates the ability to apply an urban-scale air quality model with an individual-level exposure model to determine multiple tiers of exposure metrics for an epidemiological study, in support of improving health risk assessments.