Molden, N. orcid.org/0000-0002-4906-2718, Hemming, C., Leach, F. orcid.org/0000-0001-6656-2389 et al. (3 more authors) (2023) Exposures to Particles and Volatile Organic Compounds across Multiple Transportation Modes. Sustainability, 15 (5). 4005. ISSN 2071-1050
Abstract
Travellers may be exposed to a wide range of different air pollutants during their journeys. In this study, personal exposures within vehicles and during active travel were tested in real-world conditions across nine different transport modes on journeys from London Paddington to Oxford City Centre, in the United Kingdom. The modes tested covered cycling, walking, buses, coaches, trains and private cars. Such exposures are relevant to questions of traveller comfort and safety in the context of airborne diseases such as COVID-19 and a growing awareness of the health, safety and productivity effects of interior air quality. Pollutants measured were particle number (PN), particle mass (PM), carbon dioxide (CO2) and speciated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), using devices carried on or with the traveller, with pumped sampling. Whilst only a relatively small number of journeys were assessed—inviting future work to assess their statistical significance—the current study highlights where a particular focus on exposure reduction should be placed. Real-time results showed that exposures were dominated by short-term spikes in ambient concentrations, such as when standing on a train platform, or at the roadside. The size distribution of particles varied significantly according to the situation. On average, the coach created the highest exposures overall; trains had mixed performance, while private cars and active transport typically had the lowest exposures. Sources of pollutants included both combustion products entering the vehicle and personal care products from other passengers, which were judged from desk research on the most likely source of each individual compound. Although more exposed to exhaust emissions while walking or cycling, the active traveller had the benefit of rapid dilution of these pollutants in the open air. An important variable in determining total exposure was the journey length, where the speed of the private car was advantageous compared to the relative slowness of the coach.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | air quality; vehicle interior air quality; cabin air quality index; VIAQ; CAQI; pollution; exposure; volatile organic compounds; VOCs; public transport; particulate matter; PM; PM2 5 |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Spatial Modelling and Dynamics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 14 Jul 2023 10:27 |
Last Modified: | 14 Jul 2023 10:27 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI AG |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/su15054005 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201508 |