1. Introduction and Overview. 2. Detecting Influential Observations and Outliers. 3. Detecting and Assessing Collinearity. 4. Applications and Remedies. 5. Research Issues and Directions for Extensions. Bibliography. Author Index. Subject Index.

Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) is an independent organization devoted to the development of standards.

American Society for Testing and Materials

Because human activities impact the timing, location, and degree of pollutant exposure, they play a key role in explaining exposure variation. This fact has motivated the collection of activity pattern data for their specific use in exposure assessments. The largest of these recent efforts is the National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS), a 2-year probability-based telephone survey ( n=9386) of exposure-related human activities in the United States (U.S.) sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The primary purpose of NHAPS was to provide comprehensive and current exposure information over broad geographical and temporal scales, particularly for use in probabilistic population exposure models. NHAPS was conducted on a virtually daily basis from late September 1992 through September 1994 by the University of Maryland's Survey Research Center using a computer-assisted telephone interview instrument (CATI) to collect 24-h retrospective diaries and answers to a number of personal and exposure-related questions from each respondent. The resulting diary records contain beginning and ending times for each distinct combination of location and activity occurring on the diary day (i.e., each microenvironment). Between 340 and 1713 respondents of all ages were interviewed in each of the 10 EPA regions across the 48 contiguous states. Interviews were completed in 63% of the households contacted. NHAPS respondents reported spending an average of 87% of their time in enclosed buildings and about 6% of their time in enclosed vehicles. These proportions are fairly constant across the various regions of the U.S. and Canada and for the California population between the late 1980s, when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) sponsored a state-wide activity pattern study, and the mid-1990s, when NHAPS was conducted. However, the number of people exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in California seems to have decreased over the same time period, where exposure is determined by the reported time spent with a smoker. In both California and the entire nation, the most time spent exposed to ETS was reported to take place in residential locations.

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The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

/pdf/the-environmental-protection-agency-3gx4opzrjm.pdf

The Environmental Protection Agency

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(02)11280-3.pdf

Association between mortality and indicators of traffic-related air pollution in the Netherlands: a cohort study

This paper reviews studies of particle concentrations and sources in homes and buildings. Three major studies of indoor and outdoor concentrations in U.S. homes are summarized in detail and compared. A number of smaller studies in homes are also briefly summarized. One study of 38 buildings and several smaller studies of buildings are also reviewed. All major studies found that an important indoor source of fine and coarse particles was cigarette smoking, with estimated increases in homes with smokers ranging from 25 to 45 micrograms/m3 PM2.5. Several studies identified cooking as a second important source. All of the three major studies found a substantial portion of indoor particles to be due to unexplained indoor sources, suggesting a topic for future research. One study also found a large unexplained increase in personal exposure to PM10 compared to concurrent indoor or outdoor concentrations--the so-called "personal cloud," a second topic for further research. The impact of outdoor air particles on indoor concentrations was considered. Equilibrium mass balance models indicate that this is a function of the penetration P through the building envelope, the air exchange rate a, and the particle decay rate k. EPA's PTEAM Study provided an estimate for k of 0.39 h-1 for fine particles and 1.01 h-1 for coarse particles. Two studies suggest that P = 1 for PM10. Using these results, the fraction of outdoor air PM2.5 and PM10 particles found indoors at a given air exchange rate can be calculated. The protective effect of reducing air exchange rates during periods of high outdoor particle pollution can thus be quantified.

Indoor particles: a review.

The PTEAM Study was the first large-scale probability-based study of personal exposure to particles. Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Air Resources Board of California, it was carried out by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and the Harvard University School of Public Health (HSPH). HSPH designed and constructed a 4-lpm, battery-operated personal monitor for inhalable particles (PM10) that could be worn comfortably for up to 14 hours by persons from 10 to 70 years old. The monitor was worn for two consecutive 12-hour periods (day and night) during the fall of 1990 by 178 participants representing 139,000 nonsmoking residents of Riverside, California. Nearly identical monitors were employed to collect concurrent indoor and outdoor samples. The monitors were equipped with a different sampling nozzle to collect fine particles (PM2.5). Population-weighted daytime personal PM10 exposures averaged 150 +/- 9 (SE) micrograms/m3, compared to concurrent indoor and outdoor concentrations of 95 +/- 6 micrograms/m3. This suggested the existence of excess mass near the person, a "personal cloud" that appeared related to personal activities. Fourteen of 15 prevalent elements also were evaluated in the personal samples. The two major indoor sources of indoor particles were smoking and cooking; even in these homes, however, more than half of the indoor particles came from outdoors, and a substantial portion of the indoor particles were of undetermined indoor origin. Outdoor concentrations near the homes were well correlated with outdoor concentrations at the central site, supporting the idea of using the central site as an indicator of of ambient concentrations over a wider area. Indoor concentrations were only weakly correlated with outdoor concentrations, however, and personal exposures were even more poorly correlated with outdoor concentrations. Elemental profiles were obtained for environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) (major contributions from potassium and chlorine) and cooking emissions (aluminum, iron, calcium, and chlorine). These profiles can be used in future source apportionment studies.

Personal exposure to airborne particles and metals: Results from the Particle TEAM Study in Riverside, California

During the 1990s, several large-scale studies of benzene concentrations in air, food, and blood have added to our knowledge of its environmental occurrence. In general, the new studies have confirmed the earlier findings of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM) studies and other large-scale studies in Germany and the Netherlands concerning the levels of exposure and major sources. For example, the new studies found that personal exposures exceeded indoor concentrations of benzene, which in turn exceeded outdoor concentrations. The new studies of food concentrations have confirmed earlier indications that food is not an important pathway for benzene exposure. The results of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey on blood levels in a nationwide sample of 883 persons are in good agreement with the concentrations in exhaled breath measured in about 800 persons a decade earlier in the TEAM studies. Major sources of exposure continue to be active and passive smoking, auto exhaust, and driving or riding in automobiles. New methods in breath and blood sampling and analysis offer opportunities to investigate short-term peak exposures and resulting body burden under almost any conceivable field conditions.

Environmental exposure to benzene : an update

Cooking, particularly frying, is an important source of particles indoors. Few studies have measured a full range of particle sizes, including ultrafine particles, produced during cooking. In this study, semicontinuous instruments with fine size discriminating ability were used to calculate particle counts in 124 size bins from 0.01 to 2.5 microm. Data were collected at 5 min intervals for 18 months in an occupied house. Tracer gas measurements were made every 10 min in each of 10 rooms of the house to establish air change rates. Cooking episodes (N = 44) were selected meeting certain criteria (high concentrations, no concurrent indoor sources, long smooth decay curves), and the number and volume of particles produced were determined for each size category. For each episode, the particle decay rate was determined and used to determine the source strength for each size category. The selected cooking episodes (mostly frying) were capable of producing about 10(14) particles over the length of the cooking period (about 15 min), more than 90% of them in the ultrafine (< 0.1 microm) range, with an estimated whole-house volume concentration of 50 (microm/cm)3. More than 60% of this volume occurred in the 0.1-0.3 microm range. Frying produced peak numbers of particles at about 0.06 microm, with a secondary peak at 0.01 microm. The peak volume occurred at a diameter of about 0.16 microm. Since the cooking episodes selected were biased toward higher concentrations, the particle concentrations measured during about 600 h of morning and evening cooking over a full year were compared to concentrations measured during noncooking periods at the same times. Cooking was capable of producing more than 10 times the ultrafine particle number observed during noncooking periods. Levels of PM2.5 were increased during cooking by a factor of 3. Breakfast cooking (mainly heating water for coffee and using an electric toaster) produced concentrations about half those produced from more complex dinnertime cooking. Although the number and volume concentrations observed depend on air change rates, house volume, and deposition rates due to fans and filters, the source strengths calculated here are independent of these variables and may be used to estimate number and volume concentrations in other types of homes with widely varying volumes, ventilation rates, and heating and air-conditioning practices.

Source strengths of ultrafine and fine particles due to cooking with a gas stove.

Data from EPA's TEAM Study allow us to identify the major sources of exposure to benzene for much of the U.S. population. These sources turn out to be quite different from what had previously been considered the important sources. The most important source of exposure for 50 million smokers is the mainstream smoke from their cigarettes, which accounts for about half of the total population burden of exposure to benzene. Another 20% of nationwide exposure is contributed by various personal activities, such as driving and using attached garages. (Emissions from consumer products, building materials, paints, and adhesives may also be important, although data are largely lacking.) The traditional sources of atmospheric emissions (auto exhaust and industrial emissions) account for only about 20% of total exposure. Environmental tobacco smoke is an important source, accounting for about 5% of total nationwide exposure. A number of sources sometimes considered important, such as petroleum refining operations, petrochemical manufacturing, oil storage tanks, urban-industrial areas, service stations, certain foods, groundwater contamination, and underground gasoline leaks, appear to be unimportant on a nationwide basis.

Lance Wallace

Papers

Indoor particles: a review.

Personal exposure to airborne particles and metals: Results from the Particle TEAM Study in Riverside, California

Environmental exposure to benzene : an update

Source strengths of ultrafine and fine particles due to cooking with a gas stove.

Major Sources of Benzene Exposure