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. 2017;8(10):182.
doi: 10.3390/atmos8100182. Epub 2017 Sep 21.

Interpreting Mobile and Handheld Air Sensor Readings in Relation to Air Quality Standards and Health Effect Reference Values: Tackling the Challenges

George M Woodall  1 , Mark D Hoover  2 , Ronald Williams  1 , Kristen Benedict  1 , Martin Harper  2 , Jhy-Charm Soo  2 , Annie M Jarabek  1 , Michael J Stewart  1 , James S Brown  1 , Janis E Hulla  3 , Motria Caudill  4 , Andrea L Clements  1 , Amanda Kaufman  1 , Alison J Parker  5 , Martha Keating  1 , David Balshaw  6 , Kevin Garrahan  7 , Laureen Burton  7 , Sheila Batka  8 , Vijay S Limaye  8 , Pertti J Hakkinen  9 , Bob Thompson  1
Affiliations

Interpreting Mobile and Handheld Air Sensor Readings in Relation to Air Quality Standards and Health Effect Reference Values: Tackling the Challenges

George M Woodall et al. Atmosphere (Basel). 2017.

Abstract

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal agencies face a number of challenges in interpreting and reconciling short-duration (seconds to minutes) readings from mobile and handheld air sensors with the longer duration averages (hours to days) associated with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the criteria pollutants-particulate matter (PM), ozone, carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides. Similar issues are equally relevant to the hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) where chemical-specific health effect reference values are the best indicators of exposure limits; values which are often based on a lifetime of continuous exposure. A multi-agency, staff-level Air Sensors Health Group (ASHG) was convened in 2013. ASHG represents a multi-institutional collaboration of Federal agencies devoted to discovery and discussion of sensor technologies, interpretation of sensor data, defining the state of sensor-related science across each institution, and provides consultation on how sensors might effectively be used to meet a wide range of research and decision support needs. ASHG focuses on several fronts: improving the understanding of what hand-held sensor technologies may be able to deliver; communicating what hand-held sensor readings can provide to a number of audiences; the challenges of how to integrate data generated by multiple entities using new and unproven technologies; and defining best practices in communicating health-related messages to various audiences. This review summarizes the challenges, successes, and promising tools of those initial ASHG efforts and Federal agency progress on crafting similar products for use with other NAAQS pollutants and the HAPs. NOTE: The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessary represent the opinions of their Federal Agencies or the US Government. Mention of product names does not constitute endorsement.

Keywords: air pollutants; ambient air; citizen science; indoor air; toxic chemicals.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual integration of exposure and dose (from National Research Council).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The life-cycle approach for sensor methods and instrumentation [–91].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Communication interfaces, roles, and responsibilities for air quality sensor and health data customers, creators, curators, and analysts [95].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Graphical Arrays of Chemical-Specific Health Effect Reference Values for Inhalation Exposures. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Research Triangle Park, NC, USA: 2009. [accessed on 5 May 2017]. EPA/600/R-09/061. Available online: http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=211003.
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