Contribution of various microenvironments to the daily personal exposure to ultrafine particles: Personal monitoring coupled with GPS tracking

• Published in: Atmospheric environment (1994) Vol. 110; pp. 122 - 129
• Main Authors: Bekö, Gabriel, Kjeldsen, Birthe Uldahl, Olsen, Yulia, Schipperijn, Jasper, Wierzbicka, Aneta, Karottki, Dorina Gabriela, Toftum, Jørn, Loft, Steffen, Clausen, Geo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2015
• Subjects: Active transport-physical; Active transport-physical activity; activity; adverse effects; Arbetsmedicin och miljömedicin; atmospheric chemistry; Denmark; Environmental Health and Occupational Health; Geographic Information System (GIS); Global Positioning System (GPS); global positioning systems; Health Sciences; Hälsovetenskap; Indoor/outdoor exposure; Medical and Health Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; monitoring; Occupational Health and Environmental Health; Passive transport-vehicles; Ultrafine particles; Denmark, Copenhagen; Denmark; Ultrafine particles; Passive transport-vehicles; Geographic Information System (GIS); Active transport-physical activity; Global Positioning System (GPS); Indoor/outdoor exposure
• ISSN: 1352-2310; 1873-2844; 1873-2844
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.03.053

Exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) may have adverse health effects. Central monitoring stations do not represent the personal exposure to UFP accurately. Few studies have previously focused on personal exposure to UFP. Sixty non-smoking residents living in Copenhagen, Denmark were asked to carry a backpack equipped with a portable monitor, continuously recording particle number concentrations (PN), in order to measure the real-time individual exposure over a period of ∼48 h. A GPS logger was carried along with the particle monitor and allowed us to estimate the contribution of UFP exposure occurring in various microenvironments (residence, during active and passive transport, other indoor and outdoor environments) to the total daily exposure. On average, the fractional contribution of each microenvironment to the daily integrated personal exposure roughly corresponded to the fractions of the day the subjects spent in each microenvironment. The home environment accounted for 50% of the daily personal exposure. Indoor environments other than home or vehicles contributed with ∼40%. The highest median UFP concentration was obtained during passive transport (vehicles). However, being in transit or outdoors contributed 5% or less to the daily exposure. Additionally, the subjects recorded in a diary the periods when they were at home. With this approach, 66% of the total daily exposure was attributable to the home environment. The subjects spent 28% more time at home according to the diary, compared to the GPS. These results may indicate limitations of using diaries, but also possible inaccuracy and miss-classification in the GPS data. •The real-time personal UFP exposure of 59 persons was measured for ∼48 h.•The contribution of various environments to total exposure was estimated using GPS.•The home environment accounted for 50% of the total daily personal exposure.•Being in transit or outdoors contributed <5% each, other indoor environments ∼40%.•The highest median concentration was obtained during passive transport (vehicles).