AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Measuring Commuter Exposure to Black Carbon in the Context of a Multi-Pollutant Study
NICHOLAS GOOD, Taylor Carpenter, Maggie Clark, Phil Clark, Ashleigh Kayne, Kirsten Koehler, Brianna Moore, Christian L'Orange, Amy L. Stuart, Jennifer Peel, John Volckens, Colorado State University
Abstract Number: 471 Working Group: Aerosol Exposure
Abstract The Fort Collins Commuter Study aims to assess personal exposure to multiple airborne pollutants via extensive measurements and modelling approaches over a 5 year period. In particular the study aims to assess how choice of commuting mode (car, bicycle) and route (high vs. low traffic) affect air pollution intake, given that road traffic is the dominant source of pollution in the US. Black carbon exposure is of particular interest due to its association with potent cardiopulmonary health effects.
Personal exposures are assessed through space and time across 30 hour periods of continuous sampling using an instrumented backpack. Fifty participants complete a minimum of 8 sampling days commuting via car and bicycle resulting in a total of 400 participant days of data. Pollutants associated with road vehicle emissions are a particular focus of the study. Exposure to black carbon, carbon monoxide, particulate mass, particle number, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen dioxide and noise intensity are measured at 10 second resolution. The location of study participants is recorded via gps and apportioned into different microenvironments (home, work, commute) using a geospatial algorithm.
Initial results show culmulative daily personal black carbon exposure is generally dominated by the contribution from commuting. Results from the first 10 participants showed that on average 66% of daily black carbon exposure occurs during commuting compared to 25% for PM$_(2.5). Within-commute black carbon exposures are highly variable and dependent upon specific features of the route and transport mode. For example, the initial results show median black carbon exposures measured within 10 metres an intersection are 6 times higher than other on road exposures.