PNNL

Abstract

A number of methodologies have been reported for measuring vapor uptake efficiencies in the upper respiratory tract of experimental animals (1). Hybrid computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models, as described by Frederick et al. (2) that incorporate information on the anatomy of both rats and humans have been used to improve interspecies dosimetric corrections for human health risk assessments. However, validation of these models requires sufficient experimental data, and robust data defining the role of the upper respiratory tract in modulating the absorption of gases and vapors in human volunteers, are lacking. A survey of the available literature shows a limited number of experimental studies to evaluate the dosimetry of vapors in the nose and upper airways of humans. The scarcity of literature data undoubtedly reflects the complication of conducting controlled studies in human volunteers, and with the exception of a few limited studies, little experimental data is available. This chapter will highlight studies specific for nasal dosimetry data from humans and briefly review modeling approaches for predictive extrapolations from animal data.