TITLE
The Relationship Between Personal Exposure and Ambient
Concentrations of Particulate Matter, and Implications for
Mortality Studies


AUTHOR(S)
David T. Mage, Lance A. Wallace, Timothy J. Buckley

PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS
Atmospheric Research and Exposure Assessment Laboratory
Office of Research and Development
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 2771

SPONSORING AGENCY NAME AND ADDRESS
Atmospheric Research and Exposure Assessment Laboratory
Office of Research and Development
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 2771

ABSTRACT
It is established that personally monitored particulate matter (PM)
is poorly correlated with ambient concentrations of PM.  This
observation is inconsistent with epidemiology studies relating
ambient PM to mortality.  This paper reviews in depth the
relationships between personal and ambient PM concentrations from
the litereature, discusses possible reasons for low correlations
between them, and the implications for interpretation of health
effect studies relating mortality to ambient PM concentrations. 
This investigation shows that although ambient PM provides a poor
predictor of an individual's personal PM, it explains much of the
variability for a community's mean personal PM.