AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
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Time-resolved Exposure Level to Heavy Metal Aerosols at the Underground Platform of a Subway Station in Seoul, Korea
SEUNG-BOK LEE, Chang Hyeok Kim, Hyungjin Lim, Jihoon Seo, Jin Young Kim, Gwi Nam Bae, Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Abstract Number: 168 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract Higher exposure level to particulate matters especially heavy metal aerosols at the subway stations for passengers were reported by using personal sampling methods, and daily averaged or subway operating-hour averaged concentrations of heavy metal components have been found to be significantly higher than ambient pollution level. However, time-resolved concentrations exposed to passengers are needed to evaluate health risk assessment for consideration of time-activity patterns and floating population by demographic groups. In this study, gaseous and particulate hazardous air pollutants including heavy metal aerosols were intensively measured at the underground platform of a subway station in urban area of Seoul, Korea, for one week in December 2016. Four mini-volume samplers were used for PM10 sampling for six hours from 0-6 a.m., 6-12 p.m., 12-18 p.m., 18-24 p.m., respectively. The highest concentration of iron during rush hours was about thirty times higher than ambient annual average. The concentrations of iron, manganese, copper, chromium showed a good positive correlation with the number of subway trains operated. This correlation equation can be used to estimate time-resolved concentrations exposed to heavy metal aerosols at the subway platforms for detailed health risk assessment.