Sprawl and Health

Chang 2000 - "Hourly Personal Exposures to Fine Particles and Gaseous Pollutants--Results from Baltimore, Maryland"

Chang, Li-Te; Koutrakis, Petros; et al
"Hourly Personal Exposures to Fine Particles and Gaseous Pollutants--Results from Baltimore, Maryland"
Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association
July 2000; v.50, n.7; pp.1223-1235
On the Web
Relevance: medium

The authors measured personal VOC exposure in a variety of microenvironments that older adults generally encounter. PM 2.5 concentrations were highest in the food court, while walking and driving, and in a kitchen and TV room at home. Ozone levels were elevated while walking at noon and while driving. Carbon monoxide levels were elevated i the middle of the day and while driving.

Ambient concentrations of PM 2.5 seem to be fairly well with personal exposure (r>.6 for all but one case). Ambient concentrations of ozone were also highly correlated with personal exposure for outdoor and in-vehicle microenvironments, less so for indoor environments, and barely at all for homes. There seems to be little correlation between ambient BTEX levels and personal exposures in homes and cars (except for benzene in homes), which suggests to me that personal exposure in those places comes mostly from personal activities (cooking, cleaning, and driving).

Chan 1991 - "Commuter Exposure to VOCs in Boston, Massachusetts"

Chan, Chang-Chuan; Spengler, John D; et al.
"Commuter Exposure to VOCs in Boston, Massachusetts"
Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association
December 1991; v.41, n.12; pp.1594-1600
On the Web
Relevance: high

The authors measured VOC exposure for four commuting methods (car, subway, walking, biking) plus concentrations in homes, offices, and on the sidewalk in Boston. They found that concentrations were generally highest in cars and lowest in homes/offices. "For most VOCs, the concentrations in homes and offices were about three to five times lower than the VOC concentrations during commuting." Around 10-20% of daily VOC exposure for car and subway commuters occurred during the commute.

Driving on urban roads was correlated with higher VOC concentrations (1.5 times higher) than driving on interstates.  Using the heater also increased VOC levels. On the other hand, the age of the car or country of origin (US vs. imported) did not seem to make a difference.

Larson 2004 - "Source Apportionment of Indoor, Outdoor, and Personal PM2.5 in Seattle, Washington, Using Positive Matrix Factorization"

Larson, Timothy Gould, Timothy; et al.
"Source Apportionment of Indoor, Outdoor, and Personal PM2.5 in Seattle, Washington, Using Positive Matrix Factorization"
Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association
September 2004, v.54, n.9; pp.1175-1187
On the Web
Relevance: medium

The authors measured indoor, outdoor, and personal concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the city of Seattle and estimated the sources of this PM. They concluded that vegetative burning (wood, incense, candles) contributed the most PM mass to outdoor (35%), indoor (49%), and personal (62%) exposure. In general, it seems that PM concentrations are higher outdoors than indoors.

Payne-Sturges 2004 - "Personal Exposure Meets Risk Assessment: A Comparison of Measured and Modeled Exposure and Risks in an Urban Community"

Payne-Sturges, Devon C; Burke, Thomas A.; et al.
"Personal Exposure Meets Risk Assessment: A Comparison of Measured and Modeled Exposure and Risks in an Urban Community"
Environmental Health Perspectives
April 2004; v.112, n.5; pp.589-598
On the Web
Relevance: low

The authors measured personal exposure, indoor concentrations, and outdoor concentrations of VOCs in South Baltimore, an area near chemical industries and an interstate highway. They found that personal exposure was generally higher than indoor concentrations, which were higher than outdoor concentrations. The authors report these concentrations and the associated cancer risks. Their main goal was to compare their measured estimates to estimates from the ASPEN model.

Levy 2000 - "Particle Concentrations in Urban Microenvironments"

Levy, Jonathan I; Houseman, E. Andres; et al.
"Particle Concentrations in Urban Microenvironments"
Environmental Health Perspectives
November 2000; v.108, n.11; pp.1051-1057.
On the Web
Relevance: medium

The authors measured particulate matter indoors and outdoors in seven microenvironments (subway, bus, restaurant, hospital, gymnasium, museum, store) in Boston. Particle counts for PM 0.3-0.5 were generally higher inside the subway and bus than outdoors, but lower inside the store, hospital, and museum. Particle counts overall were higher inside the subway and bus than outside.

Sexton 2004 - "Comparison of Personal, Indoor, and Outdoor Exposures to Hazardous Air Pollutants in Three Urban Communities"

Sexton, Ken; Adgate, John L; et al.
"Comparison of Personal, Indoor, and Outdoor Exposures to Hazardous Air Pollutants in Three Urban Communities"
Environmental Science and Technology
2004; v.38, n.2; pp.423-430
On the Web
Relevance: high

The authors measure personal, indoor, and outdoor exposures to 15 VOCs in three different neighborhoods of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. They found that outdoor community air monitors greatly underestimate personal exposures and that even indoor monitors underestimate personal exposure. For example, for benzene, the personal/outdoor (P/O) ratio of estimated relative concentrations is 6.8, while the personal/indoor concentration (P/I) is 1.6.

Leung 1998 - "Evaluation of Personal Exposure to Monoaromatic Hydrocarbons"

Leung, Pei-Ling; Harrison, Roy M
"Evaluation of Personal Exposure to Monoaromatic Hydrocarbons"
Occupational and Environmental Medicine
April 1998; v.55, n.4; pp. 249-257
On the Web
Relevance: high

The authors measured the exposure of 50 volunteers in the UK to various monoaromatic hydrocarbons (MAHs) over the course of 12 hour days. They found that urban volunteers were exposed to more MAHs than non-urban volunteers. Most of the total exposure is from the home, despite low concentrations, due to the vast amount of time spent there. Although little time is spent driving, the high concentration of MAHs in vehicles made it a noticeable contributor for office workers (5% of total exposure) 

Allen 2004 - "Estimated Hourly Personal Exposures to Ambient and Nonambient Particulate Matter Among Sensitive Populations in Seattle"

Allen, Ryan; Wallace, Lance; et al.
"Estimated Hourly Personal Exposures to Ambient and Nonambient Particulate Matter Among Sensitive Populations in Seattle"
Journal of Air and Waste Management
September 2004; v.54; n.9; pp.1197-1411
On the Web
Relevance: High

The authors measured the concentration of particulate matter in various mircoenvironments (home indoors, home outdoors, work, school, in transit, other outdoors, other indoors) and the average exposure for 38 subjects in Seattle. The subjects selected were "sensetive populations" with asthma, coronary heart disease, or advanced age. The major findings were:

• The best air was indoors at home; the worst air was at work, followed by outdoors and in transit.
• Because subjects spend so much time at home, most of their exposure (79%) occured there.
• There was a low correlation between ambient and personal exposures (0.43) compared to findings from other studies. This means that localized sources highly affect personal exposure (i.e. cooking fumes vs.general air quality)

Kim 2001 - “Concentrations and Sources of VOCs in Urban Domestic and Public Microenvironments”

Kim, Young Min; Harrad, Stuart; Harrison, Roy M.
“Concentrations and Sources of VOCs in Urban Domestic and Public Microenvironments”
Environmental Science and Technology
March 15, 2001; v.35, n.6; pp.997-1004
On the Web
Relevance: high

Concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were measured in a wide range of urban microenvironments (including homes, offices, shops, roadsides, buses, trains, and cars) in Birmingham, UK.  Of transportation microenvironments, cars had the highest mean concentrations of most of the VOCs measured; however the automobiles in the study were over 10 years old and smoking occurred in 6 of them during sampling.

Kim 2002 - “Levels and Sources of Personal Inhalation Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds”

Kim, Young Min; Harrad, Stuart; Harrison, Roy M.
“Levels and Sources of Personal Inhalation Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds” Environmental Science and Technology
December 15, 2002; v.36,n.24; pp.5405-5410
On the Web
Relevance: medium

Personal exposures to VOCs of 12 urban dwellers (Birmingham, UK) were measured over 5-10 days.  Exposure in the home contributed 50-80% of overall individual exposure to 2 main VOCs, mostly due to the large amount of time spent at home.  Smoking, vehicle use, and heating also contributed noticeably to personal exposure to VOCs.