Study on sandstorm PM₁₀ exposure assessment in the large-scale region: a case study in Inner Mongolia

The current exposure-effect curves describing sandstorm PM₁₀ exposure and the health effects are drawn roughly by the outdoor concentration (OC), which ignored the exposure levels of people's practical activity sites. The main objective of this work is to develop a novel approach to quantify human PM₁₀ exposure by their socio-categorized micro-environment activities-time weighed (SCMEATW) in strong sandstorm period, which can be used to assess the exposure profiles in the large-scale region. Types of people's SCMEATW were obtained by questionnaire investigation. Different types of representatives were trackly recorded during the big sandstorm. The average exposure levels were estimated by SCMEATW. Furthermore, the geographic information system (GIS) technique was taken not only to simulate the outdoor concentration spatially but also to create human exposure outlines in a visualized map simultaneously, which could help to understand the risk to different types of people. Additionally, exposure-response curves describing the acute outpatient rate odds by sandstorm were formed by SCMEATW, and the differences between SCMEATW and OC were compared. Results indicated that acute outpatient rate odds had relationships with PM₁₀ exposure from SCMEATW, with a level less than that of OC. Some types of people, such as herdsmen and those people walking outdoors during a strong sandstorm, have more risk than office men. Our findings provide more understanding of human practical activities on their exposure levels; they especially provide a tool to understand sandstorm PM₁₀ exposure in large scale spatially, which might help to perform the different categories population's risk assessment regionally.