Introduction to papers published from the AIRMON symposium, Marseille, France, 15–19 June 2014
Peter
Görner
INRS, 1 rue du Morvan, CS 60027, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, 54519, France
The symposium dealt with important environmental and workplace health issues and welcomed about two hundred specialists from all over the world, focusing on the following topics: sampling and measurement of aerosols, nanoaerosols, bioaerosols, semi volatile organic compounds, and air sampling and air monitoring in general. Exposure assessment strategies, peak exposures, multi exposures, active and passive sampling of organic and inorganic substances, biological monitoring – biomarkers of exposure and exposure modelling were also among the scientific topics.
Didier Baptiste, the scientific director of INRS, opened the conference and he underlined the relevance of the symposium's theme. In particular, he mentioned the World Health Organisation's (WHO) preoccupation with the growing number of respiratory diseases, including allergies and cancers, which have been linked to air pollution. As the director of the PEROSH (Partnership for European Research on Occupational Safety and Health) network he expressed his support for international research into air quality monitoring and the associated biological follow-up.
The plenary contributions presented by renowned international scientists highlighted and reviewed scientific issues relevant to the related sessions:
J. Volckens of Colorado State University (USA) presented a new aerosol sampling concept and element measurement based on state-of-the-art sensors which reduce the bulk and cost of equipment as well as the analysis time.
C. Duchaine of Université Laval, Quebec (Canada) compared the conventional bacterial culture approach and the molecular biology approach for the identification of microbiological agents.
O. Witschger from INRS (France) highlighted the rapid development over the last decade of research attempting to characterise nanoparticles and their toxicity, and of research attempting to measure exposure to nanoaerosols.
K. Ashley of the NIOSH (USA) presented NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods 5th Edition, which should help to harmonise occupational exposure monitoring in the United States.
M. Harper, also of NIOSH (USA), talked about the frequent overlap between air pollutants found in occupational, domestic and environmental settings.
D. Breuer from IFA (Germany) inaugurated the important subject of how semi-volatile particles and vapours can be sampled.
W. Rosenberger (Germany) attracted the audience's attention to the problem of air quality in cockpits and cabins on airplanes during long-distance flights.
Y. Thomassen of STAMI (Norway) addressed the complex subject of the bio-availability of chemical substances as a function of their various phases and physical states.
G. C. Dragan (Germany) used theoretical and experimental means to address the behaviour of semi-volatile aerosols in workplaces and the efficiency of their sampling as a function of the physical parameters of the aerosol.
J. Mraz of SZU (Czech Republic) devoted his presentation to metabolic products which can be used as biomarkers of exposure to chemicals.
R. Vincent from INRS (France) addressed the important subject of strategy and how exposure should be measured. A significant standardisation effort is being made under the direction of Mr Vincent as part of the activity within the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).
Many other important and interesting contributions were presented orally or as posters during the five days of the AIRMON symposium, including six short courses on air monitoring and biomonitoring. The full text of the abstracts for all AIRMON 2014 communications and posters are available at http://www.atoutcom.com/airmon2014/resumes.pdf.
The Royal Society of Chemistry has a tradition of publishing AIRMON communications as full length, peer reviewed papers. In line with this tradition, selected contributions from AIRMON 2014 are published in this themed issue of Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. Papers published here touch on important topics, such as bioaerosols, semi-volatile aerosols, airborne nanoparticles, active and passive sampling of pollutants, their analysis and risk assessment.
Jacques Lavoie et al. (DOI: 10.1039/c4em00359d) assessed exposure to a bioaerosol during bronchoscopy in a hospital setting. Sampling of semi-volatile droplets is discussed by Breuer et al. (DOI: 10.1039/c4em00602j) and Schnelle-Kreis et al. (DOI: 10.1039/c4em00468j). With the help of inter-phase mass exchange specialist George Dragan, these authors have developed a miniaturized sampling system and a method to test its performance in the laboratory and in the field. Real-time air monitoring was tested by Sébastien Bau et al. (DOI: 10.1039/c4em00491d) for the assessment of nanoparticle lung deposits.
Last but not least, environmental and indoor studies are presented in two papers. Pasquale Avino et al. (DOI: 10.1039/c4em00471j) present an important environmental study on how elemental and organic carbon are distributed in the air in Rome, taking into account different sources of pollution and meteorological conditions, whereas Paul Scheepers et al. (DOI: 10.1039/c4em00506f) describe how air quality is improved in primary schools where “dust reducing carpets” and “compact air filtration units” were introduced.
As co-president of AIRMON 2014, I would like to thank all participants at the symposium who contributed to its success. I particularly thank the small circle of organisers at INRS and the two national and international scientific committees for their active participation in the organisation and development of the symposium programme.
In conclusion, I address my sincere wishes of success to the future president, D. Breuer (IFA, Germany), and the consortium of scientific institutions who will organise AIRMON 2017 in the beautiful historic city of Dresden, Germany, June 11–15, 2017.
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