Monitoring of exposure to air pollution

This paper reviews recent advancements in methods of human exposure assessment to air pollutants. Instruments are becoming available for continuous recording of personal exposures, but their operating performance should be thoroughly assessed for accuracy, precision, interference, etc. Even after the method validation, it will be difficult and expensive to undertake continuous personal exposure monitoring in large study groups. The specification of exposures across a large population is probably best carried out using a combination of measurements and models. Detailed exposure measurements can be valuable in small-scale studies of exposure patterns, in pilot studies or to assess the validity of surrogate or proxy measures of exposure.