Uncertainties in aerosol deposition within the respiratory tract using the icrp 66 model: a study in workers

This study estimates uncertainties in aerosol deposition within the main regions of the human respiratory tract calculated using the ICRP 66 model. Uniform, triangular, normal, or lognormal distributions were assigned to the model parameters, which involve physical properties of aerosols, their inhalability, their thermo- and aerodynamic deposition efficiencies, and the anatomy, physiology, and exertion level of the individuals. Calculations were performed over a range of aerosol sizes from 0.01 to 50 mum. Monodispersed aerosols were characterized by their aerodynamic diameter (dae). Polydispersed aerosols were characterized by their activity median aerodynamic diameters (AMADs) and the geometric standard deviation (GSD) in diameter. Lognormal distributions of particle deposition were generally observed with low GSD (< 2). The highest uncertainties were observed within the deep lung for the smallest and the largest aerosol sizes, which were mainly due either to particle density or to aerodynamic deposition efficiencies and anatomical and physiological variability, respectively. In the case of diameters larger than 5 mum, uncertainties in the deep lung deposition were much more important for monodispersed than for polydispersed aerosols. This was explained both by the size distribution of the deposited aerosol, the median of which corresponded to a maximal dae value of about 7 and 5 in bronchioles and alveoli, respectively, and by the absence of deposition, which occurs for dae equal to or larger than 50 mum, depending on the exertion level. Thus, in the range of AMADs considered, for the four default workers proposed by ICRP 66, uncertainties in aerosol deposition remain low, with GSD smaller than 3.