scholarly journals Attributing Air Pollutant Exposure to Emission Sources with Proximity Sensing

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Piedrahita ◽  
Evan R. Coffey ◽  
Yolanda Hagar ◽  
Ernest Kanyomse ◽  
Katelin Verploeg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Time Activity ◽  
Proximity Data ◽  
Air Quality Measurements ◽  
Pollution Exposure ◽  
Negative Health Outcomes

Biomass burning for home energy use contributes to negative health outcomes and environmental degradation. As part of the REACCTING study (Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana), personal exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) was measured to gauge the effects of introducing two different cookstove types over four intervention groups. A novel Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) Beacon system was deployed on a subset of those CO measurement periods to estimate participants’ distances to their most-used cooking areas during the sampling periods. In addition to presenting methods and validation for the BLE Beacon system, here we present pollution exposure assessment modeling results using two different approaches, in which time-activity (proximity) data is used to: (1) better understand exposure and behaviors within and away from homes; and (2) predict personal exposure via microenvironment air quality measurements. Model fits were improved in both cases, demonstrating the benefits of the proximity measurements.

Land use regression modelling of ambient air pollutants in Hong Kong

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiyuan Li ◽  
Steve Hung Lam Yim ◽  
Kin-Fai Ho
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Pollutant Concentrations ◽  
Air Quality Measurements ◽  
Air Pollutant Concentrations

<p>Land use regression (LUR) models estimate air pollutant concentrations for areas without air quality measurements, which provides valuable information for exposure assessment and epidemiological studies. In the present study, we developed LUR models for ambient air pollutants in Hong Kong, China, a typical high-density and high-rise city. Air quality measurements at sixteen air quality monitoring stations, operated by the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, were collected. Moreover, five categories of predictor variables, including population distribution, traffic emissions, land use variables, urban/building morphology, and meteorological parameters, were employed to establish the LUR models of various air pollutants. Then the spatial distribution of air pollutant concentrations at 1 km × 1 km grid cells were plotted. Taking fine particle (PM2.5) as an example, the developed LUR model explained 89% of variability of PM2.5 concentrations, with a leave-one-out-cross-validation R2 of 0.64. LUR modelling results for other air pollutants will be presented. In addition, further improvements on the development of LUR models will be discussed. This study can help to assess long-term exposures to air pollutants for high-density and high-rise urban areas like Hong Kong.</p>

scholarly journals Future Global Air Quality Indices under Different Socioeconomic and Climate Assumptions

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Reis ◽  
Laurent Drouet ◽  
Rita Dingenen ◽  
Johannes Emmerling
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Quality Indices ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Pollution Exposure

Future socioeconomic developments and climate policies will play a role in air quality improvement since greenhouse gases and air pollutant emissions are highly connected. As these interactions are complex, air quality indices are useful tools to assess the sustainability of future policies. Here, we compute new global annual air quality indices to provide insights into future global and regional air quality, allowing for the evaluation of the sustainability of climate policies. We project the future concentrations of major the air pollutants for five socioeconomic pathways covering a broad range of climate radiative forcing targets in 2100, using a fast transport chemistry emulator and the emission database produced for the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Our findings show that climate policies are very relevant in reducing air pollution exposure by mid-century. Climate policies will have a stronger effect on the pollution reduction timing, while socioeconomic developments will have a greater impact on the absolute pollution level. A 1.5 ∘ C policy target may prevent all regions from exceeding the annual average limit for all pollutants considered, except PM 2 . 5 . We emphasize the importance of considering exposure air quality indices, when assessing sustainable policies, as being more informative rather than a population-weighted average index.

scholarly journals Exposures to Carbon Monoxide in a Cookstove Intervention in Northern Ghana

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Piedrahita ◽  
Evan R. Coffey ◽  
Yolanda Hagar ◽  
Ernest Kanyomse ◽  
Christine Wiedinmyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Study Groups ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Control Group ◽  
And Performance

Biomass burning for home energy use is a major environmental health concern. Improved cooking technologies could generate environmental health benefits, yet prior results regarding reduced personal exposure to air pollution are mixed. In this study, two improved stove types were distributed over four study groups in Northern Ghana. Participants wore real-time carbon monoxide (CO) monitors to measure the effect of the intervention on personal exposures. Relative to the control group (those using traditional stoves), there was a 30.3% reduction in CO exposures in the group given two Philips forced draft stoves (p = 0.08), 10.5% reduction in the group given two Gyapa stoves (locally made rocket stoves) (p = 0.62), and 10.2% reduction in the group given one of each (p = 0.61). Overall, CO exposure for participants was low given the prevalence of cooking over traditional three-stone fires, with 8.2% of daily samples exceeding WHO Tier-1 standards. We present quantification methods and performance of duplicate monitors. We analyzed the relationship between personal carbonaceous particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) and CO exposure for the dataset that included both measurements, finding a weak relationship likely due to the diversity of identified air pollution sources in the region and behavior variability.

scholarly journals Mapping pollution exposure and chemistry during an extreme air quality event (the 2018 Kīlauea eruption) using a low-cost sensor network

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (27) ◽  
pp. e2025540118
Author(s):  
Ben Crawford ◽  
David H. Hagan ◽  
Ilene Grossman ◽  
Elizabeth Cole ◽  
Lacey Holland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Population Distribution ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Spatial Density ◽  
Chemical Transformations ◽  
Distributed Network ◽  
Air Quality Measurements ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Conversion Time ◽  
Pollution Exposure

Extreme air quality episodes represent a major threat to human health worldwide but are highly dynamic and exceedingly challenging to monitor. The 2018 Kīlauea Lower East Rift Zone eruption (May to August 2018) blanketed much of Hawai‘i Island in “vog” (volcanic smog), a mixture of primary volcanic sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas and secondary particulate matter (PM). This episode was captured by several monitoring platforms, including a low-cost sensor (LCS) network consisting of 30 nodes designed and deployed specifically to monitor PM and SO2 during the event. Downwind of the eruption, network stations measured peak hourly PM2.5 and SO2 concentrations that exceeded 75 μg m−3 and 1,200 parts per billion (ppb), respectively. The LCS network’s high spatial density enabled highly granular estimates of human exposure to both pollutants during the eruption, which was not possible using preexisting air quality measurements. Because of overlaps in population distribution and plume dynamics, a much larger proportion of the island’s population was exposed to elevated levels of fine PM than to SO2. Additionally, the spatially distributed network was able to resolve the volcanic plume’s chemical evolution downwind of the eruption. Measurements find a mean SO2 conversion time of ∼36 h, demonstrating the ability of distributed LCS networks to observe reaction kinetics and quantify chemical transformations of air pollutants in a real-world setting. This work also highlights the utility of LCS networks for emergency response during extreme episodes to complement existing air quality monitoring approaches.

scholarly journals Is Compact Urban Form Good for Air Quality? A Case Study from China Based on Hourly Smartphone Data

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 504
Author(s):  
Man Yuan ◽  
Mingrui Yan ◽  
Zhuoran Shan
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Population Distribution ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Compact Development ◽  
Pollution Exposure

In previous studies, planners have debated extensively whether compact development can improve air quality in urban areas. Most of them estimated pollution exposure with stationary census data that linked exposures solely to residential locations, therefore overlooking residents’ space–time inhalation of air pollutants. In this study, we conducted an air pollution exposure assessment by scrutinizing one-hour resolution population distribution maps derived from hourly smartphone data and air pollutant concentrations derived from inverse distance weighted interpolation. We selected Wuhan as the study area and used Pearson correlation analysis to explore the effect of compactness on population-weighted concentrations. The results showed that even if a compact urban form helps to reduce pollution concentrations by decreasing vehicle traveling miles and tailpipe emissions, higher levels of building density and floor area ratios may increase population-weighted exposure. With regard to downtown areas with high population density, compact development may locate more people in areas with excessive air pollution. In all, reducing density in urban public centers and developing a polycentric urban structure may aid in the improvement of air quality in cities with compact urban forms.

scholarly journals Inter- and Intra-Individual Variability of Personal Health Risk of Combined Particle and Gaseous Pollutants across Selected Urban Microenvironments

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 565
Author(s):  
Shakhaoat Hossain ◽  
Wenwei Che ◽  
Alexis Kai-Hon Lau
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Home Office ◽  
Air Quality Measurements ◽  
Residence Location ◽  
Ambient Concentrations

Exposure surrogates, such as air quality measured at a fixed-site monitor (FSM) or residence, are typically used for health estimates. However, people spend various amounts of time in different microenvironments, including the home, office, outdoors and in transit, where they are exposed to different magnitudes of particle and gaseous air pollutants. Health risks caused by air pollution exposure differ among individuals due to differences in activity, microenvironmental concentration, as well as the toxicity of pollutants. We evaluated individual and combined added health risks (AR) of exposure to PM2.5, NO2, and O3 for 21 participants in their daily life based on real-world personal exposure measurements. Exposure errors from using surrogates were quantified. Inter- and intra-individual variability in health risks and key contributors in variations were investigated using linear mixed-effects models and correlation analysis, respectively. Substantial errors were found between personal exposure concentrations and ambient concentrations when using air quality measurements at either FSM or the residence location. The mean exposure errors based on the measurements taken at either the FSM or residence as exposure surrogates was higher for NO2 than PM2.5, because of the larger spatial variability in NO2 concentrations in urban areas. The daily time-integrated AR for the combined PM2.5, NO2, and O3 (TIARcombine) ranged by a factor of 2.5 among participants and by a factor up to 2.5 for a given person across measured days. Inter- and intra-individual variability in TIARcombine is almost equally important. Several factors were identified to be significantly correlated with daily TIARcombine, with the top five factors, including PM2.5, NO2 and O3 concentrations at ‘home indoor’, O3 concentrations at ‘office indoor’ and ambient PM2.5 concentrations. The results on the contributors of variability in the daily TIARcombine could help in targeting interventions to reduce daily health damage related to air pollutants.

Improving the Protection of Children Against Air Pollution Threats in Romania � The RokidAIR Project Approach and Future Perspectives

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-846
Author(s):  
Hai-Ying Liu ◽  
Daniel Dunea ◽  
Mihaela Oprea ◽  
Tom Savu ◽  
Stefania Iordache
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Health Assessment ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Quality Maps

This paper presents the approach used to develop the information chain required to reach the objectives of the EEA Grants� RokidAIR project in two Romanian cities i.e., Targoviste and Ploiesti. It describes the PM2.5 monitoring infrastructure and architecture to the web-based GIS platform, the early warning system and the decision support system, and finally, the linking of air pollution to health effects in children. In addition, it shows the analysis performance of the designed system to process the collected time series from various data sources using the benzene concentrations monitored in Ploiesti. Moreover, this paper suggests that biomarkers, mobile technologies, and Citizens� Observatories are potential perspectives to improve data coverage by the provision of near-real-time air quality maps, and provide personal exposure and health assessment results, enabling the citizens� engagement and behavioural change. This paper also addresses new fields in nature-based solutions to improve air quality, and studies on air pollution and its mental health effects in the urban areas of Romania.

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