Use of personal exposure modelling in risk assessment of air pollutants
- Center for Risk Science and Public Health, Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, 2300 K Street, NW, Warwick #201, Washington, DC, USA; psarin@gwu.edu
Kromhout and van Tangeren1 raise important issues regarding the papers by Cherrie2 and Harrison and colleagues.3 The major shortcomings of the paper by Harrison and colleagues3 are the small size of the sample (six subjects each) used in the extrapolation of results. The three groups studied were the children, the elderly, and subjects with preexisting disease. The sample size in the disease category used only two subjects each with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), left ventricular failure (LVF), and severe asthma. These sample sizes are rather inadequate to draw any correlation. Thus the paper by Harrison and colleagues3 does not adequately represent a generalised level of exposure of the individuals to carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter (PM10).
In risk assessment of ill health association with air contaminants, uniform sampling of the pollutants at home, school, work, …
