Breathing rate

Breathing rate is volume of breaths per day. Breathing rate is used in risk assessment of inhaled toxic compounds.

General data on breathing rates by age and gender are available from the EPA [1985, 1989a] and the ICRP [1975]. Values in Table B-1 are taken primarily from the ICRP [1975] with variances estimated by McKone and Daniels [1991]. The working breathing rate is for 8 hours of work and, when combined with 8 hours of breathing at the active rate and 8 hours at the resting rate, gives a daily equivalent intake of 30 m3 for an adult [EPA, 1989b]. Layton [1992] has derived breathing rates that are consistent with the quantities of oxygen needed to metabolize reported dietary intakes of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. He has shown that the values in Table B-1 could be high by a factor of from 20% to 30%, but this is within the CV reported here.[ttp://www.lbl.gov/ehs/esg/tritium/tritium/TritAppB.html]

Unit

m3/day

Result

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for mean daily average ventilation rate (m3/day) in females and males, by age category, Unadjusted for Body Weight; m3/day)[1].

	Females	Males
Birth to <1 year	8.53	8.76
1 year	13.31	13.49
2 years	12.74	13.23
3 to <6 years	12.16	12.65
6 to <11 years	12.41	13.42
11 to <16 years	13.44	15.32
16 to <21 years	13.59	17.22
21 to <31 years	14.57	18.82
31 to <41 years	14.98	20.29
41 to <51 years	16.2	20.93
51 to <61 years	16.18	20.91
61 to <71 years	12.99	17.94
71 to <81 years	12.04	16.35
81 years and older	11.14	15.15

Table 2. Breathing rates based on Cerna et al 1998.

Age group	Inhalation volume (m3/day)
Adult	20
Children (8-10y)	10
Children (1y)	3.8
New born	0.8

References

• Cerna et al 1998
• Kalaiarasan et al 2009
• Metabolically Derived Human Ventilation Rates: A Revised Approach Based Upon Oxygen Consumption Rates (Final Report) [2]
• Arcus-Arth, Amy; Blaisdell, Robert J: Risk Analysis, Volume 27, Number 1, February 2007 , pp. 97-110(14)[3]

see also

• Respiratory rate as number of breaths a living being [4].