Assessing Exposures to Inhaled Complex Mixtures

In the course of daily activities, individuals spend varying amounts of time in different spaces where they are exposed to a complex mixture of gas, vapor, and particulate contaminants. The term complex is used in this paper to refer to binary mixtures as well as truly complex mixtures of three or more constituents. The diversity of the environments where pollution may occur, the number of pollutants that may be present, and the nature of the activity in the environment combine to pose a challenge to investigators of the health effects of air pollutants. This article discusses several methods of measuring or assessing exposure to complex mixture air contaminants that include time-activity assessments, personal monitoring, biomarkers of exposure, and microenvironmental models that can be employed singly or in combination in a protocol for exposure assessment. The use of nested designs, involving more intensive data collection from samples or subjects, is also considered.