Assessment of personal exposure to air pollutants in Scotland - An integrated approach using personal monitoring data

Abstract

High levels of air pollution are associated with adverse effects on public health. Pollutant concentrations are typically subject to a high spatial and temporal variability. To investigate and quantify potential relations between pollutant concentrations and health effects, e.g. cases of respiratory diseases, sophisticated geospatial tools and methods are required. Air pollutants are ubiquitous and a certain level of exposure is inevitable. For risk assessments and public health advice, however, it is necessary to quantify human exposure to specific pollutants of concern. This is a challenging task as individual daily mobility patterns substantially influence exposure to air pollutants over time and in space. But it is not only people's activities making the quantification difficult, also air chemistry, microclimatic and meteorological influences are changing over space and time, resulting in high spatial and temporal variation of ambient pollutant concentrations. Within a research project funded by the Scottish Government (EDPHiS, Environmental Determinants of Public Health in Scotland), the application of GIS methods and tools for integrating data from personal monitoring trials with supporting Scotland-wide datasets such as air pollution concentrations, land use and population data for personal exposure assessment will be examined. The work described here is conducted in the frame of a joint PhD studentship between the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the University of Exeter. It focuses on the development of methods for personal exposure monitoring as well as the integration of measured data with supporting secondary data for improving human exposure assessment. For this purpose, an experimental design with a small, wearable personal monitoring device to derive personal time-activity patterns and exposure profiles is currently devised. Resulting personal exposure profiles will be integrated and assessed using geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods for a complementary human exposure assessment approach. The work presented here will focus on the aspect of monitoring personal activity and resulting exposure. Its challenges and methods for quantification will be elaborated.