Personal black carbon and ultrafine particles exposures among high school students in urban China

Ying Zhou; Yijun Shao; Yue Yuan; Jian Liu; Xiaoli Zou; Pinqing Bai; Ming Zhan; Peng Zhang; Jelle Vlaanderen; Roel Vermeulen; George S Downward

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114825

Personal black carbon and ultrafine particles exposures among high school students in urban China

Environ Pollut. 2020 Oct;265(Pt A):114825. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114825. Epub 2020 May 22.

Authors

Ying Zhou¹, Yijun Shao², Yue Yuan³, Jian Liu⁴, Xiaoli Zou⁵, Pinqing Bai⁶, Ming Zhan⁶, Peng Zhang², Jelle Vlaanderen⁷, Roel Vermeulen⁷, George S Downward⁸

Affiliations

¹ Centers for Water and Health, Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety, Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China; Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene and Chemistry, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China; Department of Sanitary Technology, West China School of Public Health, University of Sichuan, Chengdu, 610041, China.
² Centers for Water and Health, Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety, Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China; Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene and Chemistry, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China.
³ Institute for Physical and Chemical Inspection, Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu, 610041, China.
⁴ Chengdu Shude High School, Chengdu, 610031, China.
⁵ Department of Sanitary Technology, West China School of Public Health, University of Sichuan, Chengdu, 610041, China.
⁶ Pudong New Area for Disease Control and Prevention, Fudan University Pudong Institute of Preventive Medicine, Shanghai, 200136, China.
⁷ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, 3584CM, Netherlands.
⁸ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, 3584CM, Netherlands. Electronic address: G.S.Downward@uu.nl.

PMID: 32474339
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114825

Abstract

Air pollution is a major public health challenge in the highly urbanized megacities of China. However, knowledge on exposure to ambient unregulated air pollutants such as black carbon (BC) and ultrafine particles (UFP) among the Chinese population, especially among urban high school students who may have highly variable time-activity patterns, is scarce. To address this, the personal exposures to BC and UFP of high school students (aged 17 to 18) in Chengdu, China were measured at 1-min intervals via portable samplers. Monitoring lasted for 2 consecutive 24-h periods with days classified as "school days" or "non-school days". Time-activity diaries and measurements were combined to explore spatial, temporal, and behavioral factors that contribute to different exposure profiles. The overall geometric means of BC and UFP were 3.60 μg/m³ and 1.83 × 10⁴p/cm³, respectively with notable spatiotemporal variation in exposures observed. In general, the household and transport microenvironments were the predominant contributors to total BC (74.5%) and UFP (36.5%) exposure. However, the outdoor public microenvironment was found to have significantly higher overall average levels of BC than the household and transport microenvironments (p < 0.001) while also presenting the greatest exposure dose intensity (EDI - a measure of exposure in a microenvironment in proportion to time spent in that environment) of 4.79. The largest overall average level of UFP occurred in the indoor public microenvironment followed by transport. The outdoor public microenvironment also presented the greatest EDI of UFP (4.17). This study shows notable spatiotemporal variety in exposure patterns and will inform future exposure and population health studies. The high EDI outdoors may mean that health positive activities, such as exercise, may be being undermined by ambient pollution.

Keywords: Black carbon; High school students; Personalized exposure monitoring; Ultrafine particles; Urban China.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Air Pollutants / analysis*
Air Pollution, Indoor / analysis*
Carbon
China
Environmental Monitoring
Humans
Particle Size
Particulate Matter / analysis
Students

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter
Carbon