Individuals calculation

This module is used to generate a set of simulated individuals with properties age, bodyweight, sex and body surface area (BSA). The simulated individuals are used for generating exposures in the modules for sources like dust, air and soil. After selecting Simulate individuals (see option ‘Specify individuals for generating dust, air and soil exposures’) in the dust exposures, air exposures and soil exposures modules the individuals module becomes visible. Also specify the number of individuals.

Ages are randomly drawn in a range from 0 to 100. For sex, available levels are male and female. Bodyweights are calculated as

\[\mathtt{BW} = \mathtt{BW_{birth}} + 4.47 \cdot \mathtt{age} - 0.093 \cdot \mathtt{age} ^ 2 + 0.00061 \cdot \mathtt{age} ^ 3\]

(see https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2020.6223, appendix, sensitivity analysis)

\(\mathtt{BW}\): body weight of the individual (default in \(kg\))

\(\mathtt{BW_{birth}}\): body weight at birth = 3.68 (in \(kg\))

The BSA is based on an allometric scaling using a standard bodyweight of 70 \(kg\) and standard BSA of 2.70 \(m^2\). Then the applied scaling is:

\[\mathtt{scaling} = \mathtt{BW_{standard}} / \mathtt{BW} ^ {(1 - 0.7)}\]

\[\mathtt{BSA} = \mathtt{BSA_{standard}} / \mathtt{scaling}\]

See also dust exposures, soil exposures and air exposures module.