In-car particulate matter exposure across ten global cities

Author(s):Show less -

Kumar, Prashant ^{[1, 2]} ; Hama, Sarkawt ^[1] ; Nogueira, Thiago ^{[1, 3, 4]} ; Abbass, Rana Alaa ^[1] ; Brand, Veronika S. ^{[1, 4]} ; Andrade, Maria de Fatima ^[4] ; Asfaw, Araya ^[5] ; Aziz, Kosar Hama ^[6] ; Cao, Shi-Jie ^{[1, 7, 8]} ; El-Gendy, Ahmed ^[9] ; Islam, Shariful ^[10] ; Jeba, Farah ^[10] ; Khare, Mukesh ^[11] ; Mamuya, Simon Henry ^[12] ; Martinez, Jenny ^{[13, 1]} ; Meng, Ming-Rui ^[8] ; Morawska, Lidia ^{[1, 14]} ; Muula, Adamson S. ^[15] ; Nagendra, S. M. Shiva ^[16] ; Ngowi, Aiwerasia Vera ^[12] ; Omer, Khalid ^[6] ; Olaya, Yris ^[13] ; Osano, Philip ^[17] ; Salam, Abdus ^[10]

Affiliation:Show less -

^[1] Univ Surrey, Fac Engn & Phys Sci, Global Ctr Clean Air Res GCARE, Dept Civil & Environm Engn, Guildford GU2 7XH, Surrey - England

^[2] Trinity Coll Dublin, Dept Civil Struct & Environm Engn, Dublin - Ireland

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Saude Ambiental, Fac Saude Publ, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[4] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Ciencias Atmosfer, Inst Astron Geofis & Ciencias Atmosfer IAG, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[5] Addis Ababa Univ, Phys Dept, Addis Ababa - Ethiopia

^[6] Univ Sulaimani, Coll Sci, Dept Chem, Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Regio - Iraq

^[7] Southeast Univ, Sch Architecture, Nanjing 21009 - Peoples R China

^[8] Guangzhou Univ, Sch Civil Engn, Acad Bldg Energy Efficiency, Guangzhou 510006 - Peoples R China

^[9] Amer Univ Cairo, Sch Sci & Engn, Dept Construct Engn, New Cairo 11835 - Egypt

^[10] Univ Dhaka, Dept Chem, Dhaka 1000 - Bangladesh

^[11] Indian Inst Technol Delhi, Dept Civil Engn, New Delhi - India

^[12] Muhimbili Univ Hlth & Allied Sci, Dept Environm & Occupat Hlth, Dar Es Salaam - Tanzania

^[13] Univ Nacl Colombia, Bogota - Colombia

^[14] Queensland Univ Technol, Int Lab Air Qual & Hlth, Brisbane, Qld - Australia

^[15] Univ Malawi, Zomba - Malawi

^[16] Indian Inst Technol Madras, Dept Civil Engn, Chennai, Tamil Nadu - India

^[17] Stockholm Environm Inst, Nairobi - Kenya

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Science of The Total Environment; v. 750, JAN 1 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Cars are a commuting lifeline worldwide, despite contributing significantly to air pollution. This is the first global assessment on air pollution exposure in cars across ten cities: Dhaka (Bangladesh); Chennai (India); Guangzhou (China); Medellin (Colombia); Sao Paulo (Brazil); Cairo (Egypt); Sulaymaniyah (Iraq); Addis Ababa (Ethiopia); Blantyre (Malawi); and Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania). Portable laser particle counters were used to develop a proxy of car-user exposure profiles and analyse the factors affecting particulatematter <= 2.5 mu m(PM2.5; fine fraction) and <= 10 mu m (PM2.5-10; coarse fraction). Measurements were carried out during morning, off- and evening-peak hours under windows-open and windows-closed (fan-on and recirculation) conditions on predefined routes. For all cities, PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were highest during windows-open, followed by fan-on and recirculation. Compared with recirculation, PM2.5 and PM10 were higher by up to 589% (Blantyre) and 1020% (Sao Paulo), during windows-open and higher by up to 385% (Sao Paulo) and 390% (Sao Paulo) during fan-on, respectively. Coarse particles dominated the PM fraction during windows-open while fine particles dominated during fan-on and recirculation, indicating filter effectiveness in removing coarse particles and a need for filters that limit the ingress of fine particles. Spatial variation analysis during windows-open showed that pollution hotspots make up to a third of the total route-length. PM2.5 exposure for windows-open during off-peak hours was 91% and 40% less than morning and evening peak hours, respectively. Across cities, determinants of relatively high personal exposure doses included lower car speeds, temporally longer journeys, and higher in-car concentrations. It was also concluded that car-users in the least affluent cities experienced disproportionately higher in-car PM2.5 exposures. Cities were classified into three groups according to low, intermediate and high levels of PM exposure to car commuters, allowing to draw similarities and highlight best practices. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/14501-0 - Vehicular emission impacts on the population at the city of São Paulo
• Grantee: Veronika Sassen Brand
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• FAPESP's process: 16/18438-0 - São Paulo Metropolitan Area, jointly tracking climate change and air quality - METROCLIMA-MASP
• Grantee: Maria de Fátima Andrade
• Support Opportunities: Research Program on Global Climate Change - Thematic Grants