Abstract
This study investigated the suitability of outdoor particulate matter data obtained from a fixed monitoring station in estimating the personal deposited dose. Outdoor data were retrieved from a station located within the urban area of Lisbon and simulations were performed involving school children. Two scenarios were applied: one where only outdoor data were used assuming an outdoor exposure scenario, and a second one where an actual exposure scenario was adopted using the actual microenvironment during typical school days. Personal PM
and PM
dose (actual exposure scenario) was 23.4% and 20.2% higher than the ambient (outdoor exposure scenario) PM
and PM
doses, respectively. The incorporation of the hygroscopic growth in the calculations increased the ambient dose of PM
and PM
by 8.8% and 21.7%, respectively. Regression analysis between the ambient and personal dose showed no linearity with R
at 0.07 for PM
and 0.22 for PM
. On the other hand, linear regression between the ambient and school indoor dose showed no linearity (R
= 0.01) for PM
but moderate (R
= 0.48) for PM
. These results demonstrate that ambient data must be used with caution for the representativeness of a realistic personal dose of PM
while for PM
the ambient data cannot be used as a surrogate of a realistic personal dose of school children.