Walking-induced particle resuspension in indoor environments

Resuspension of particles indoors increases the risk of consequent exposure through inhalation and non-dietary ingestion. Studies have been conducted to characterize indoor particle resuspension but results do not always agree, and there are still many open questions in this field. This paper reviews the recent research of indoor resuspension and summarizes findings to answer six critical questions: 1) How does the resuspension sources compared to other indoor sources; 2) How is resuspension determined and how does the resuspension measure change as a function of particle size; 3) What are the primary resuspension mechanisms; 4) What are the factors affecting resuspension; 5) What are the knowledge gaps and future research directions in this area; and 6) How can what we know about resuspension guide better exposure mitigation strategies? From synthesized results, we conclude that resuspension is an important source for indoor particulate matter, compared with other indoor sources. Among all existing quantification terms of resuspension, resuspension fraction has the least variation in its estimates by explicitly defining surface loading and walking frequency, and thus is recommended to be adopted in future research over other terms. Resuspension increases with particle size in the range of 0.7–10 μm, although differences exist in resuspension estimates by orders of magnitude. The primary mechanism of particle resuspension involves rolling detachment, and the adhesive forces can be greatly reduced by microscopic surface roughness. Particle resuspension is by nature complicated, affected by various factors and their interactions. There are still many open questions to be answered to achieve an understanding of resuspension fundamentals. Given the complex and multidisciplinary nature of resuspension, understanding indoor particle resuspension behavior requires cross-disciplinary participation from experts in aerosol science, textile science, surface chemistry, electrostatics, and fluid mechanics.