| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 環境與安全衛生工程研究所 === 104 === Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that particulate matters have caused the increasing incident rate of human respiratory diseases. On the other hand, acoustic rhinometry (AR) has also shown nasal mucosal swelling is associated with dust exposure among workers. Numerous studies have confirmed that secondary organic aerosol (SOA) in ultrafine ranges may be resulted from the reaction between ozone and terpenes in essential oils. However, whether human nasal mucosal swelling could be resulted from the exposure to such untrafine particles is not clear. Thus, the current study is to investigate whether mucosal swelling is present when human subjects are exposed to SOA by using acoustic rhinometry. In this controlled-environment study, 25 subjects of experimental group and 50 subjects of control group were recruited for exposure study and questionnaire. The experimental group was exposed to different exposure modes, where level of total volatile organic compound (TVOC) was maintained at either 1000 or 2000 ppb and level of ozone was set at background level, 30~40ppb or 50~60ppb, for a period of one hour. AR measurement, which measured the minimum cross-section area (MCA) of nasal valve and volume0-5 cm (Vol0-5 cm) , was conducted at the end of each one-hour period. Same AR measurements were conducted for the control group who were exposed to the ambient air. The results of AR measurements show that MCA and Vol0-5 cm for the experimental group when exposed to TVOC only increased for 4.7% and 8.7%, respectively. The statistical analysis showed no significant difference when compared to the control group, which had a decrease of 2.1% in MCA and an increase of 3.4% in Vol0-5 cm. The increase of 21.1% and 19.8% for MCA and Vol0-5 cm, respectively, was found for the experimental group who exposed to TVOC and ozone together and this was to be significantly different from that of control group. This study concluded that the human nasal mucosal swelling can be observed when people are exposed to the ultrafine particles.
|
|---|
