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Study of the aerosol characteristics and their deposition in the human respiratory tract at the Acrotiri region

Malakasi Maria-Gavriela

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Summary

The characteristics and the behavior of atmospheric particles, that penetrate into the human respiratory tract from different sources, indoor and outdoor, have been studied because their consequences in human health are very harmful. The main purpose of the present thesis is to study the impact of PM10 particles and the associated deposited dose into the human respiratory tract with variable levels of activity. Outdoor measurements of PM10 during a three months sampling campaign took place at Akrotiri station (Technical University of Crete, Chania). PM10 concentrations were used as input data to estimate the deposited dose to the respiratory tract by using a dosimetry model (ExDoM2).The analysis of the results showed that daily concentrations of particulate matter ranged between 6 μg/m3 to 45 μg/m3. In addition, hourly concentrations of particulate matter PM10 were up to 32 μg/m3 for July, 16 μg/m3 for June and 20 μg/m3 for May. The concentrations of particulate matters with a maximum aerodynamic diameter 2,5 μm, were about 6 μg/m3 to 17 μg/m3. The activity of the exposed human affects the dose that deposited in the human respiratory tract. Simulations, showed that as the exercise gets harder, the deposited dose increases because the exposed human inhales more particles than in any other activity. A significant source of PM10 concentrations was Sahara dust events during the studied period. In this situation, the concentrations of particulate matter exceeded the European limits of PM10 which is 50 μg/m3. The particulate matter penetrates into human upper respiratory tract so the deposited dose was higher there.

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