A real-time personal PM_(2.5)exposure monitoring system and its application for college students

There is a growing need in public health to conduct large-scale epidemiological studies to investigate the health effects of fine particulate matter(PM_(2.5))exposure levels.In response to this need,we developed a real-time personal PM_(2.5)exposure monitoring system(PEPS:Personal Exposure PM_(2.5)System),which is capable of monitoring personal exposure concentration and uploading data in real time.The air quality self-labelling device,specifically customized for the PEPS,can be worn on the body and features functions for real-time data automatic upload,data storage,data export,and localization.This system enables researchers to obtain the big data of personal PM_(2.5)exposure concentration at low cost,with minimal manpower and technical requirements.It has been utilized to investigate the personal exposure levels of PM_(2.5)among college students in Beijing,China,providing a substantial volume of valuable data for indoor air quality and related epidemiological study.The maximum difference between the monitored daily average exposure concentration and the outdoor concentration was 265µg/m^(3),corresponding to a relative error of 1579.5%.The correlation analysis of 11 factors showed that the correlation between exposure concentration and outdoor concentration was as high as 0.66(p<0.001),and the correlation between exposure concentration and other certain factors was in the range of[−0.11,−0.03].