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The intensity, frequency, duration, and contribution of distinct PM2.5 sources in Asian households have seldom been assessed; these are evaluated in this work with concurrent personal, indoor, and outdoor PM2.5 and PM1 monitoring using novel low‐cost sensing (LCS) devices, AS‐LUNG. GRIMM‐comparable observations were acquired by the corrected AS‐LUNG readings, with R2 up to 0.998. Twenty‐six non‐smoking healthy adults were recruited in Taiwan in 2018 for 7‐day personal, home indoor, and home outdoor PM monitoring. The results showed 5‐min PM2.5 and PM1 exposures of 11.2 ± 10.9 and 10.5 ± 9.8 µg/m3, respectively. Cooking occurred most frequently; cooking with and without solid fuel contributed to high PM2.5 increments of 76.5 and 183.8 µg/m3 (1 min), respectively. Incense burning had the highest mean PM2.5 indoor/outdoor (1.44 ± 1.44) ratios at home and on average the highest 5‐min PM2.5 increments (15.0 µg/m3) to indoor levels, among all single sources. Certain events accounted for 14.0%‐39.6% of subjects' daily exposures. With the high resolution of AS‐LUNG data and detailed time‐activity diaries, the impacts of sources and ventilations were assessed in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smartwatches are being increasingly used in research to monitor heart rate (HR). However, it is debatable whether the data from smartwatches are of high enough quality to be applied in assessing the health impacts of air pollutants. The objective of this study was to assess whether smartwatches are useful complements to certified medical devices for assessing PM2.5 health impacts. Smartwatches and medical devices were used to measure HR for 7 and 2 days consecutively, respectively, for 49 subjects in 2020 in Taiwan. Their associations with PM2.5 from low-cost sensing devices were assessed. Good correlations in HR were found between smartwatches and certified medical devices (rs > 0.6, except for exercise, commuting, and worshipping). The health damage coefficients obtained from smartwatches (0.282% increase per 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5) showed the same direction, with a difference of only 8.74% in magnitude compared to those obtained from certified medical devices. Additionally, with large sample sizes, the health impacts during high-intensity activities were assessed. Our work demonstrates that smartwatches are useful complements to certified medical devices in PM2.5 health assessment, which can be replicated in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Microsensors have been used for the high-resolution particulate matter (PM) monitoring., Objectives: This study applies PM and health microsensors with the objective of assessing the peak exposure, sources, and immediate health impacts of PM 2.5 and PM 1 in two Asian countries., Methods: Exposure assessment and health evaluation were carried out for 50 subjects in 2018 and 2019 in Bandung, Indonesia and for 55 subjects in 2019 and 2020 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Calibrated AS-LUNG sets and medical-certified RootiRx® sensors were used to assess PM and heart-rate variability (HRV), respectively., Results: Overall, the 5-min mean exposure of PM 2.5 and PM 1 was 30.4 ± 20.0 and 27.0 ± 15.7 µg/m 3 in Indonesia and 14.9 ± 11.2 and 13.9 ± 9.8 µg/m 3 in Taiwan, respectively. The maximum 5-min peak PM 2.5 and PM 1 exposures were 473.6 and 154.0 µg/m 3 in Indonesia and 467.4 and 217.7 µg/m 3 in Taiwan, respectively. Community factories and mosquito coil burning are the two most important exposure sources, resulting in, on average, 4.73 and 5.82 µg/m 3 higher PM 2.5 exposure increments for Indonesian subjects and 10.1 and 9.82 µg/m 3 higher PM 2.5 exposure for Taiwanese subjects compared to non-exposure periods, respectively. Moreover, agricultural waste burning and incense burning were another two important exposure sources, but only in Taiwan. Furthermore, 5-min PM 2.5 and PM 1 exposure had statistically significantly immediate impacts on the HRV indices and heart rates of all subjects in Taiwan and the scooter subjects in Indonesia with generalized additive mixed models. The HRV change for a 10 µg/m 3 increase in PM 2.5 and PM 1 ranged from -0.9% to -2.5% except for ratio of low-high frequency, with greater impacts associated with PM 1 than PM 2.5 in both countries., Impact Statement: This work highlights the ability of microsensors to capture high peaks of PM 2.5 and PM 1 , to identify exposure sources through the integration of activity records, and to assess immediate changes in heart rate variability for a panel of approximately 50 subjects in Indonesia and Taiwan. This study stands out as one of the few to demonstrate the immediate health impacts of peak PM, complementing to the short-term (days or weeks) or long-term effects (months or longer) assessed in most epidemiological studies. The technology/methodology employed offer great potential for researchers in the resource-limited countries with high PM 2.5 and PM 1 levels., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Few studies have investigated the effect of personal PM 2.5 and PM 1 exposures on heart rate variability (HRV) for a community-based population, especially in Asia. This study evaluates the effects of personal PM 2.5 and PM 1 exposure on HRV during two seasons for 35 healthy adults living in an urban community in Taiwan. The low-cost sensing (LCS) devices were used to monitor the PM levels and HRV, respectively, for two consecutive days. The mean PM 2.5 and PM 1 concentrations were 13.7 ± 11.4 and 12.7 ± 10.5 μg/m 3 (mean ± standard deviation), respectively. Incense burning was the source that contributed most to the PM 2.5 and PM 1 concentrations, around 9.2 μg/m 3 , while environmental tobacco smoke exposure had the greatest impacts on HRV indices, being associated with the highest decrease of 20.2% for high-frequency power (HF). The results indicate that an increase in PM 2.5 concentrations of one interquartile range (8.7 μg/m 3 ) was associated with a change of -1.92% in HF and 1.60% in ratio of LF to HF power (LF/HF). Impacts on HRV for PM 1 were similar to those for PM 2.5 . An increase in PM 1 concentrations of one interquartile range (8.7 μg/m 3 ) was associated with a change of -0.645% in SDNN, -1.82% in HF and 1.54% in LF/HF. Stronger immediate and lag effects of PM 2.5 exposure on HRV were observed in overweight/obese subjects (body mass index (BMI) ≥24 kg/m 2 ) compared to the normal-weight group (BMI <24 kg/m 2 ). These results indicate that even low-level PM concentrations can still cause changes in HRV, especially for the overweight/obese population., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work eported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The intensity, frequency, duration, and contribution of distinct PM 2.5 sources in Asian households have seldom been assessed; these are evaluated in this work with concurrent personal, indoor, and outdoor PM 2.5 and PM 1 monitoring using novel low-cost sensing (LCS) devices, AS-LUNG. GRIMM-comparable observations were acquired by the corrected AS-LUNG readings, with R 2 up to 0.998. Twenty-six non-smoking healthy adults were recruited in Taiwan in 2018 for 7-day personal, home indoor, and home outdoor PM monitoring. The results showed 5-min PM 2.5 and PM 1 exposures of 11.2 ± 10.9 and 10.5 ± 9.8 µg/m 3 , respectively. Cooking occurred most frequently; cooking with and without solid fuel contributed to high PM 2.5 increments of 76.5 and 183.8 µg/m 3 (1 min), respectively. Incense burning had the highest mean PM 2.5 indoor/outdoor (1.44 ± 1.44) ratios at home and on average the highest 5-min PM 2.5 increments (15.0 µg/m 3 ) to indoor levels, among all single sources. Certain events accounted for 14.0%-39.6% of subjects' daily exposures. With the high resolution of AS-LUNG data and detailed time-activity diaries, the impacts of sources and ventilations were assessed in detail., (© 2020 The Authors. Indoor Air published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)