Commuters’ Personal Exposure Assessment and Evaluation of Inhaled Dose to Different Atmospheric Pollutants

Abstract

Several studies evaluating exposure to pollutants in microenvironments (MEs) are available in the scientific literature, but studies that evaluate the inhaled doses of pollutants are few in number. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the exposure of commuters to different pollutants (i.e., nitrogen dioxide [NO2] and fractionated particulate matter [PM], including ultrafine particles [UFPs]) using miniaturized and portable real-time monitoring instruments in selected MEs; the inhaled doses of these pollutants were estimated for each of these MEs. Measurements were performed along a typical commute, considering different traffic and nontraffic MEs. Experimental data were collected over four working weeks in two different seasons (winter and summer). Different portable and miniaturized instruments were used to evaluate PM and NO2 exposure. Furthermore, physiological parameters were evaluated using a heart rate monitor. The principal results show that higher exposure levels were measured in Underground (for all PM fractions and NO2) and in Car (UFP), while lower levels were measured in Car (PM and NO2) and in Train (UFP). In contrast, higher values of the inhaled cumulative dose were estimated in environments defined as Other, followed by Walking (ht), while lower values were observed in Walking (lt) and in Car.