Black carbon exposure of schoolchildren in Barcelona

Abstract

Black carbon (BC; a good tracer of road traffic emissions) concentrations from personal monitoring of 46 school children showed the highest levels in comparison with the corresponding fixed stations in schools and in a reference urban background station. Commuting periods showed extreme concentration peaks and the concentration was 2.9 times higher than at home. Children spent only 5.6 % of their time on commuting but received 19.6 % of their daily dose. Moreover, they received 36.5 % of the dose at schools. Therefore, traffic density around schools and typical school commuting routes should be reduced.