Impact of time-activity patterns on personal exposure to black carbon

Abstract

Time-activity patterns are an important determinant of personal exposure to air pollution. This is demonstrated by measuring personal exposure of 16 participants for 7 consecutive days: 8 couples of which one person was a full-time worker and the other was a homemaker; both had a very different time-activity pattern. We used portable aethalometers to measure black carbon levels with a high temporal resolution and a PDA with GPS-logger and electronic diary. The exposure to black carbon differs between partners by up to 30%, although they live at the same location. The activity contributing most to this difference is transport: Average exposure in transport is 6445 ng m(-3), followed by exposure during shopping (2584 ng m(-3)). Average exposure is lowest while sleeping (1153 ng m(-3)) and when doing home-based activities (1223 ng m(-3)). Full-time workers spend almost twice as much time in transport as the homemakers. As a result of the study design we measured in several different homes, shops, cars, etc. enabling a better insight in true overall exposure in those microenvironments. Other factors influencing personal exposure are: background concentrations and location of residence in an urban, suburban or rural environment. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.