Variability of Personal Exposure to Fine Particulates for Urban Commuters inside an Automobile

Abstract

Over the last decade, a growing body of evidence has emerged to suggest a causal link between short-duration exposure to elevated levels of fine airborne particulate matter and adverse health consequences. It is believed much of this ‘peak’ exposure occurs in transport microenvironments both because of the higher levels of fine particulates associated with road traffic, primarily from diesel exhaust emissions, and the fact people spend a significant amount of time traveling (for instance, 80 minutes/day for residents of Sydney). While previous studies have suggested substantial differences in exposure rates due to factors such as choice of mode, route, in-vehicle conditions, and meteorological factors, current measurement techniques have restricted insights to fairly coarse sampling intervals (e.g., every half hour, every trip). As a consequence, little tangible evidence is available on how pollution varies over a trip and most critically about the location, duration, and magnitude of peak excursions within trips. The current paper reports on a study in which the capabilities of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and real-time particle monitors are combined to address this problem for an urban commute trip in Sydney. This ability to precisely spatially reference pollution data and in particular identify ‘hotspots’ holds considerable promise for both our understanding and reporting of such data in the future.