Inhale while Dreaming: Human Exposure to Pollutants while Sleeping: Workshop from Healthy Buildings 2012: 10th International Conference

Humans spend approximately 1/3 of their total life asleep, typically on a mattress or other bedding. Despite the fact that there is no other location where most of humanity spends more time, this microenvironment has received little attention from the standpoint of human exposure to a wide range of indoor pollutants, e.g., flame retardants to isocyanates. As such, there is a need for increased dialogue on this subject, end-point relevant research, and action to reduce exposures to high-risk contaminants for most of humanity.
This workshop will involve an opening 5–minute presentation related to the importance of this topic and to summarize past research. This will be followed by a series of three 8 minute presentations related to recent and on-going novel research related to emissions from mattresses, inhalation exposures, and position-specific intake fractions. One hour will be provided for audience discussion related to practical implications of new findings as well as past studies, geographic variations in emissions from mattresses and beddings, methods for reducing population exposures, and suggestions for future research that has practical endpoints and that can lead to reduced exposures.