A New Wearable System for Personal Air Pollution Exposure Estimation: Pilot Observational Study.

Background: Air pollution is a major environmental cause of premature deaths, responsible for around 7 million deaths annually. In this context, personal air pollution exposure (PAPE), the product of pollutant concentration and minute ventilation (V'm), is a crucial measure for understanding individual health risks. Standard exposure techniques do not address the space-time variability of air pollution, both indoor and outdoor, and the intra- and intersubject variability in V'm.

Objective: This study evaluates the feasibility of using a wearable body sensor network (BSN) to estimate PAPE in real-life settings, assess its capability to detect spatiotemporal variations in pollution levels, and compare inhaled dose estimates from the BSN with those from fixed monitoring stations and standard V'm values. The study also examines the system's usability.

Methods: The system, a BSN capturing physiological (pulse rate [PR] and respiratory rate [RR]) and environmental data, including health-affecting pollutants (particulate matter [PM] 1, PM2.5, PM10, CO2, CO, total volatile organic compounds, and NO2), was tested in a 4.5 km walk in Milan by 20 healthy volunteers. PR and RR collected by the system were used, together with biometric data and forced vital capacity estimations, in a model for V'm estimation to compute PAPE. Pollution levels were compared between morning and afternoon measurements, as well as between indoor and outdoor settings.

Results: Variations in RR were found among volunteers and at different locations for the same participant. Significant differences (P<.001) in pollutant concentrations were observed between morning and afternoon for CO2 (higher in the morning) and PM (higher in the afternoon). Spatial variability along the walking path was also detected, highlighting the system's high spatiotemporal resolution. Indoor environments showed high variability in CO2 and total volatile organic compounds, while outdoor settings exhibited elevated and variable PM levels. The mean PAPE to PM2.5 estimated with tabulated V'm and fixed station data was 13.31 (SD 4.16) μg while the one estimated with the BSN was 16.27 (SD 9.78) μg, 2.96 μg higher (22.3%; 95% CI -6.55 to 0.63; P=.05) than the former one, and with a broader IQR. Nevertheless, the 2 estimation methods show a good and strongly significant correlation (r=0.665; P<.001). The system's usability was generally rated as good.

Conclusions: The BSN provides high-resolution spatiotemporal data on personal exposure, capturing differences in pollution levels dependent on time, location, and surrounding environment, along with individual physiological variations. It offers a more accurate estimation of inhaled dose in real-life settings, supporting personalized exposure assessments and potential applications in activity planning and complementing epidemiological research.