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Environmental Health Criteria 214

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HUMAN EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT<br />

devices, and observation. Methods have only recently begun to be<br />

developed for assessing the role of time-activity patterns on dietary<br />

and non-dietary ingestion and dermal exposure pathways. Concerns about<br />

the ability of data collection methods to ensure activity<br />

representativeness and data validity and about the implications of<br />

inter- and intra-person variability in behaviour place limits on the<br />

application of time-activity data for human exposure assessment.<br />

However, with appropriate quality assurance programmes, information on<br />

time use and activity patterns can be very valuable for interpreting<br />

and modelling exposures.<br />

Table 16. Type of information obtained from time-activity data<br />

relevant to specific exposure pathways<br />

Personal air<br />

Water<br />

Food<br />

Soil<br />

time and location spent outdoors<br />

type of indoor location<br />

use of sources<br />

In the presence of sources:<br />

ventilation and filtration of indoor location<br />

6. HUMAN EXPOSURE AND DOSE MODELLING<br />

6.1 Introduction<br />

quantity of water consumed direct and indirectly<br />

accidental ingestion from swimming (pools, rivers,<br />

etc.)<br />

dermal contact, time in showering/bathing<br />

hand/body washing frequency<br />

amount and type of food products consumed<br />

preparation methods including cleaning<br />

preparation location (e.g., street vendors)<br />

storage practices<br />

amount of contact time and type of soil<br />

(e.g., farm, garden/possible pesticide<br />

application)<br />

skin surface contact<br />

frequency and duration of washing since contact<br />

An exposure model is a logical or empirical construct which<br />

allows estimation of individual or population exposure parameters from<br />

available input data. Such data may be measured or collected for this<br />

purpose, or obtained from other sources. Technological, logistic and<br />

financial constraints can make it difficult to monitor the exposure of<br />

humans to the various environmental agents. It is, therefore, prudent<br />

in many situations to use models to assess contaminant exposures.<br />

Models provide an analytic structure for combining data of different<br />

types collected from disparate studies in a manner that may make more<br />

complete use of the existing information on a particular contaminant<br />

than is possible from direct study methods (EC, 1997b). Exposure<br />

models, if supported by adequate observations, can be used to estimate<br />

http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/ehc<strong>214</strong>.htm<br />

Page 93 of 284<br />

6/1/2007

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