The paper presents an integrated methodology that combines experimental and modeling techniques and links exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) with internal dose in the respiratory system and burden in adjacent tissues over a period of time. The methodology is used to estimate doses in the respiratory systems of elders that reside in 10 elderly care centers (ECCs) in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. Measurements of PM were performed in the ECCs and combined with a time-budget survey for the occupants. This information served as input to the first model that estimated particle doses in the different regions of the respiratory tract of the elderly, and then a second model was used to calculate particle build-up in the alveolar region, the interstitium and the hilar lymph nodes of the elders over a 5-year exposure period. It was found that in 5 years of continuous exposure to the average particle concentration measured over all ECCs, 258 mg of all particles are deposited on the surface of the alveoli of which 79.6% are cleared, 18.8% are retained in the alveolar region, 1.5% translocate to the hilar lymph nodes, and 0.1% are transferred to the interstitium.
Keywords: Clearance; Deposition; Elders; Human respiratory tract; Model; Particulate matter.