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Development of a chamber platform for evaluating indoor dust contact transfer and resuspension in infant near-floor microenvironments.

Number: 3220

Author(s) : MAGNUSON B. H., PATRA S. S., JUNG N., BOOR B. E.

Summary

During the key motor development stages for infants that occur between the ages of 6 and 18 months, the act of crawling over a surface disturbs settled dust particles by the impact of the infant’s hands and limbs. The disturbed settled dust can then either be resuspended and inhaled by the infant or contact transferred and then ingested during mouthing events, entering their system regardless. The contents of settled dust in a given environment are reflective of the socioeconomic disparities of services in cities. Settled dust in indoor environments can contain health-relevant materials, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), metals, microplastics, flame retardants, plasticizers, allergens, and microorganisms. Given the significant potential for inhalation and ingestion of disturbed settled dust, it is critical to understand the size-dependent fate and transport of these particles during crawling events. Doing so will help identify how to mitigate health risks for infants during their key motor development stages. Experiments will be conducted within an Inert Controlled Environmental Chamber (ICEC) such that environmental conditions, maintained by a ventilation system, are representative of infant occupied dwellings and intentionally resuspended particles are isolated for detection by filtering supply air. Infant contact dynamics will be simulated with a linear stage motor to perform impact tests between samples of simulated skin and indoor surfaces of interest. Information about the velocity and forces of infant crawling styles and their associated development stages will be determined through
the New York University Databrary database of laboratory and home recordings of infant locomotion. This data can then be replicated with the linear stage and stepper motors through specified contact impulses on surfaces to mimic infant locomotion.
Experimental data collection will distinguish between resuspended and contact transferred particles from each event of interest. The Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS) utilizes single particle fluorescence spectrometry to count and measure the equivalent diameter of airborne particles, which will be used to determine the size-resolved (j) dust resuspension fraction, rj, of each event of interest using a single-zone material balance model. For the dust particles that underwent surface transfer during the event of interest, microscopic imagery will be used for identifying the particle count of dust that transferred from the experimental surface at impact, and a Laser Diffraction Particle Sizer (LDPS) will be used to determine size distributions of the transferred particles. These processes will be used to determine the size-resolved surface contact transfer fraction, cj, of each event of interest. In the existing literature, the factors for dust inhalation and ingestion, as well as the processes themselves, have been studied and examined individually and exclusively of each other. The aforementioned dust resuspension and surface transfer fractions will provide insights into the dust inhalation and dust ingestion potential of our interactions of interest, respectively. This novel examination of both fractions simultaneously allows for new mechanistic insights into the size-resolved behavior of settled indoor dust particles, removing the limited perspective of analyzing these processes individually.

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  • Original title: Development of a chamber platform for evaluating indoor dust contact transfer and resuspension in infant near-floor microenvironments.
  • Record ID : 30032953
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 2024 Purdue Conferences. 8th International High Performance Buildings Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2024/07/15

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