A wearable real‐time particulate monitor demonstrates that soaking hay reduces dust exposure

Abstract Background Affordable particulate matter (PM) monitors suitable for use on horses will facilitate the evaluation of PM mitigation methods and improve the management of equine asthma. Objective Calibrate a real‐time wearable PM monitor (Black Beauty [BB]) and compare the PM exposures of horses fed dry or soaked hay. Study design Laboratory calibration; complete cross‐over feed trial. Methods Side‐by‐side sampling with BB monitors and tapered element oscillating microbalances (TEOMs) was performed under varying concentrations of PM from alfalfa hay. Linear regression was used to derive a calibration formula for each unit based on TEOM PM measurements. Precision was evaluated by calculating the coefficient of variation and pairwise correlation coefficients between three BB monitors. PM exposure was measured at the breathing zone of 10 horses for 8 h after they were fed dry or soaked hay. Repeated measures generalised linear models were constructed to determine the effect of hay treatment and measurement duration (initial 20‐min vs. 8‐h) upon exposure to PM with diameters smaller than or equal to 10 μm (PM 10 ) and 2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ). Results BB monitor PM 2.5 and PM 10 measurements were linearly correlated with TEOM data (coefficient of determination r 2  > 0.85 and r 2  > 0.90 respectively), but underestimated PM 2.5 mass concentrations by a factor of 4 and PM 10 concentrations by a factor of 44. Measures from the three BB monitors had a coefficient of variation <15% and pairwise r  > 0.98. Feeding soaked hay significantly reduced average PM 2.5 exposures (20‐min: dry: 160 μg/m 3 , soaked: 53 μg/m 3 , p  < 0.0001; 8‐h: dry: 76 μg/m 3 , soaked: 31 μg/m 3 , p  = 0.0008) and PM10 exposures (20‐min: dry: 2829 μg/m 3 , soaked: 970 μg/m 3 , p  < 0.0001; 8‐h: dry: 1581 μg/m 3 , soaked: 488 μg/m 3 , p  = 0.008). Main limitations No health outcome measures were collected. Conclusions With appropriate corrections, the BB monitor can be used to estimate horse PM exposure. While 20‐min measurements yielded higher estimates of exposure than 8‐h measurements, both intervals demonstrate that soaking hay reduces PM exposures by more than 50%.