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Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health

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A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality and Human Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (4 September 2020) | Viewed by 18770

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Grazia Ghermandi

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Guest Editor

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 41121 Modena, Italy
Interests: air pollution; dispersion models; particulate matter; environmental impact assessment; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Vehicular traffic is one of the main factors responsible for urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Air pollution from transport causes a wide range of health problems: more than 80% of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) limits (WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database (update 2016)).
Nitrogen oxides, particulate matter (PM₁₀ and PM_2.5), sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, carcinogens including benzene derivatives, and various heavy metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury are all emitted from the exhausts of vehicles. In addition, precursor chemicals in exhausts may react in the atmosphere, giving rise to the formation of ground-level ozone (O₃), which is part of the mix of urban air pollutants and is a key factor in chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma; as well as methane, which is a strong greenhouse gas. Finally, particulate matter and heavy metals are also released into the air as a result of tire and brake abrasion and, once deposited, may be re-suspended in the air by passing cars.

Air pollution-related deaths and illness are linked most closely to exposures to small particulate matter (PM). The range of health effects is broad, but are predominantly related to the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. The risk for various outcomes has been shown to increase with exposure, but there is little evidence to suggest a threshold below which no adverse health effects would be expected. For these reasons, the WHO recommends to keep the concentration of PM as low as possible. The entire population is affected, but susceptibility may vary with health or age.

PM, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and ozone (O₃) levels have recently exceeded national and WHO standards in many urban areas across Europe. The WHO recently warned against potentially lethal air pollution levels in major cities, where citizens were invited to use public transport networks or car sharing in order to prevent the problem from worsening. Given specific meteorological conditions coupled with high pollutant emissions and the possible occurrence of extreme heat events linked to climate change, pollution episodes are expected to become more frequent.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collect contributions, original results, review papers, and model applications aiming to assess the correlation between population exposure to traffic-related air pollution and adverse effects on human health. All studies that may be employed as a tool to support environmental policies, epidemiological studies, and urban mobility planning are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Grazia Ghermandi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

air pollution
vehicular emission
pollutant dispersion models
sensors
pollutant monitoring
traffic flow survey
meteorology and climatology
public health
health risks
human exposure
epidemiology
chronic diseases
mobility planning

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2938 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Lag Variables in Nitrogen Oxide Concentration Modelling: A Case Study in Wrocław, Poland

by Joanna A. Kamińska, Fernando Jiménez, Estrella Lucena-Sánchez, Guido Sciavicco and Tomasz Turek

Atmosphere 2020, 11(12), 1293; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11121293 - 30 Nov 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1627

Abstract

Due to the unwavering interest of both residents and authorities in the air quality of urban agglomerations, we pose the following question in this paper: What impact do current and past meteorological factors and traffic flow intensity have on air quality? What is the impact of lagged variables on the fit of an explanation model, and how do they affect its ability to predict? We focused on NO₂ and NO_x concentrations, and conducted this research using hourly data from the city of Wrocław (western Poland) from 2015 to 2017; we used multi-objective optimization to determine the optimal delays. It turned out that for both NO₂ and NO_x, the past values for traffic flow, wind speed, and sunshine duration are more important than the current ones. We built random forest models on each of the pollutants for both the current and past values and discovered that including a lagged variable increases the resulting R² from 0.51 to 0.56 for NO₂ and from 0.46 to 0.52 for NO_x. We also analyzed the feature importance in each model, and found that for NO₂, a wind speed delay of more than three hours causes a significant decrease, while the importance of relative humidity increases with a seven-hour delay; likewise, wind speed increases the importance for NO_x prediction with a two-hour delay. We concluded that, in pollutant concentration modeling, the possibility of a delayed effect of the independent variables should always be considered, because it can significantly increase the performance of the model and suggest unexpected relationships or dependencies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health)

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22 pages, 9260 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Use of a Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modelling in a “Full-Chain” Exposure Assessment Framework: A Case Study on Urban and Industrial Pollution in Northern Italy

by Lorenzo Vaccari, Andrea Ranzi, Annamaria Colacci, Grazia Ghermandi and Sergio Teggi

Atmosphere 2020, 11(11), 1228; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11111228 - 14 Nov 2020

Viewed by 1743

Abstract

Background and goals: The estimate of the internal dose provided by physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling is a big step forward in the frame of human health risk assessment (HRA) from contaminating sources. The PBPK model included in the MERLIN-Expo platform was here tested with data collected in a human biomonitoring (HBM) pilot study to check model efficacy in predicting concentrations in human blood and urine of people exposed to a modern solid waste incinerator (SWI). The aim of the study was to investigate if the use of a PBPK model integrated in a computational platform could replace more expensive and invasive pilot studies. Twenty eight subjects living and working within 4 km of the incinerator (exposed) and 21 subjects living and working outside this area (unexposed) were selected among the population recruited in the HBM study. The group of exposed (E) subjects and the group of non-exposed (NE) subjects were comparable for all relevant anthropometric characteristics and exposure parameters except for the exposure to SWI emissions. Three different scenarios were created: an “only diet-scenario” (DS), a “worst case scenario” (WCS) and a “most likely scenario” (MLS). The platform was tested for blood-lead (B-Pb), urinary-lead (U-Pb), urinary-anthracene (U-Ant) and urinary-fluoranthene (U-Flt). Average estimated U-Pb was statistically equal to the measured one (est. 0.411~0.278; meas. 0.398~0.455 µg/L) and estimated vs. measured U-Ant differ by one order of magnitude only (est. 0.018~0.010; meas. 0.537~0.444 ng/L) while for U-Flt and B-Pb, the error was respectively of two and four orders of magnitude. It is likely that the extremely high accuracy in the Pb concentration input values referring to diet led to the very accurate estimate for this chemical in urine, but the higher error in the B-Pb computed value suggests that PBPK model equations cannot entirely capture the dynamics for blood compartments. MERLIN-Expo seems a very promising tool in saving time, energy and money in the screening step of the HRA framework; however, many software validations are still required. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health)

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14 pages, 2227 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Gasoline Evaporative Emissions from Fuel-Cap Removal after a Real-World Driving Event

by Hiroo Hata, Syun-ya Tanaka, Genta Noumura, Hiroyuki Yamada and Kenichi Tonokura

Atmosphere 2020, 11(10), 1110; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11101110 - 16 Oct 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2595

Abstract

This study evaluated gasoline evaporative emissions from fuel-cap removal during the refueling process (or “puff loss”) for one gasoline vehicle in the Japanese market. Specifically, the puff loss emissions were measured after a real-world driving event in urban Tokyo, Japan for different seasons and gasoline types. The experimental results indicated higher puff loss emissions during summer than in winter and spring despite using low vapor pressure gasoline during summer. These higher puff loss emissions accounted maximally for more than 4 g of the emissions from the tested vehicle. The irregular emission trends could be attributed to the complex relationships between physical parameters such as fuel-tank filling, ambient temperature, ambient pressure, and gasoline vapor pressure. Furthermore, an estimation model was developed based on the theory of thermodynamics to determine puff loss emissions under arbitrary environmental conditions. The estimation model included no fitting parameter and was in good agreement with the measured puff loss emissions. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to elucidate the effects of three physical parameters, i.e., fuel tank-filling, ambient pressure, and gasoline type, on puff loss emissions. The results indicated that fuel tank-filling was the most important parameter affecting the quantity of puff loss emissions. Further, the proposed puff loss estimation model is likely to aid the evaluation of future volatile organic compound emission inventories. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health)

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Graphical abstract

14 pages, 2080 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

A Preliminary Spatial Analysis of the Association of Asthma and Traffic-Related Air Pollution in the Metropolitan Area of Calgary, Canada

by Stefania Bertazzon, Caitlin Calder-Bellamy, Rizwan Shahid, Isabelle Couloigner and Richard Wong

Atmosphere 2020, 11(10), 1066; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11101066 - 8 Oct 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3376

Abstract

We performed a preliminary spatial analysis to assess the association of asthma emergency visits (AEV) with ambient air pollutants (NO₂, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, Black Carbon, and VOCs) over Calgary, Canada. Descriptive analyses identify spatial patterns across the city. The spatial patterns of AEV and air pollutants were analyzed by descriptive and spatial statistics (Moran’s I and Getis G). The association between AEV, air pollutants, and socioeconomic status was assessed by correlation and regression. A spatial gradient was identified, characterized by increasing AEV incidence from west to east; this pattern has become increasingly pronounced over time. The association of asthma and air pollution is consistent with the location of industrial areas and major traffic corridors. AEV exhibited more significant associations with BTEX and PM₁₀, particularly during the summer. Over time, AEV decreased overall, though with varying temporal patterns throughout Calgary. AEV exhibited significant and seasonal associations with ambient air pollutants. Socioeconomic status is a confounding factor in AEV in Calgary, and the AEV disparities across the city are becoming more pronounced over time. Within the current pandemic, this spatial analysis is relevant and timely, bearing potential to identify hotspots linked to ambient air pollution and populations at greater risk. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health)

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17 pages, 2373 KiB

Open AccessArticle

by Jiun-Horng Tsai, Yen-Ting Lu, I-I Chung and Hung-Lung Chiang

Atmosphere 2020, 11(9), 1015; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11091015 - 22 Sep 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3093

Abstract

The sampling sites, including roadsides and residential areas, were set up to collect ambient air and determine the volatile organic species it contained. For the roadside air, the average VOCs (volatile organic compounds) abundant at rush hour periods was two times that at non-rush hour periods. In the residential area, the VOC concentrationswere106 and 129 ppb during rush hour periods. The VOC concentration ratios of roadside and residential areas were in the range of 1.08–1.75 and the traffic emissions were related to the VOCs abundant in air. The highest VOC concentration was 168 ppb at midnight at residential sites and the VOC abundance could be two times that of roadside sites. This level of concentration could be attributed to the application of solvents and to human activity in a nearby motorcycle/vehicle maintenance plant, laundry rooms, etc. High abundant species were similar in both the roadside and residential air samples. These highly abundant species included toluene, acetone, acetonitrile, m,p-xylene and n-pentane, all of which can be emitted from traffic exhaust. Benzene, acrolein, formaldehyde, vinyl chloride and 1,3-butadiene were the main species with health impacts collected at both sites. In the micro-scale environment, the residential ambient air was affected by traffic flow from morning to night. In the midnight period, some local activities (a motorcycle/vehicle maintenance shop and laundry shops) affected the concentrations of certain VOCs (acetonitrile, toluene, hexane, 2-methylpentane, methyl cyclopentane and 3-methylpentane). The traffic and motor vehicles’ effects were determined, which could be useful for air quality management and strategy development in an urban area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health)

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17 pages, 6169 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dispersion of CO Using Computational Fluid Dynamics in a Real Urban Canyon in the City Center of Valencia (Spain)

by Alejandro Marulanda Tobón, Ignacio José Moncho-Esteve, Jordi Martínez-Corral and Guillermo Palau-Salvador

Atmosphere 2020, 11(7), 693; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11070693 - 30 Jun 2020

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1941

Abstract

One of the main environmental problems we are currently facing is air pollution. Air quality models calculate how much pollution is emitted and dispersed into the atmosphere. This research presents a Computational Fluid Dynamic model using a real urban geometry for the analysis of CO contamination with a three-dimensional model. This method includes a procedure of calculating emissions using different types of vehicles. CO Measurements are obtained from a Wireless Sensor Network to validate the models. The present study analyzes six representative real cases of different traffic situations and climatic conditions plus 3 hypothetical cases in a hotspot area in the city center of Valencia. The results show what influences pollution levels the most is the wind direction, which influences the generation of velocity patterns. In the validation cases, the real wind direction is used and a slight change produces great differences in both velocities and CO concentration. In the hypothetical cases, parallel and perpendicular winds are defined to observe the differences when this ideal situation is applied. In conclusion, the mixing and transport of air pollutants are closely related to the structures of velocity and turbulence that occur in the air, which depends strongly on the wind direction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health)

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13 pages, 2230 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Gaseous Emissions from a Seagoing Ship under Different Operating Conditions in the Coastal Region of China

by Chunjiang Bai, Ying Li, Bingxin Liu, Zhaoyi Zhang and Peng Wu

Atmosphere 2020, 11(3), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11030305 - 21 Mar 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3288

Abstract

Pollution caused by ship emissions has drawn attention from various countries. Because of the high density of ships in ports, channels, and anchorages and their proximity to the densely populated areas, ship emissions will considerably impact these areas. Herein, a Chinese seagoing ship is selected and a platform is established for monitoring the ship emissions to obtain detailed characteristics of the ship’s nearshore emissions. The ship navigation and pollution emission data are obtained under six complete operating conditions, i.e., berthing, manoeuvring in port, acceleration in a channel, cruising, deceleration before anchoring, and anchoring. This study analyzes the concentrations of the main emission gases (O₂, NO_X, SO₂, CO₂, and CO) and the average emission factors (EFs) of the pollution gases (NO_X, SO₂, CO₂, and CO) based on the engine power under different operating conditions. Results show that the change in O₂ concentration reflects the load associated with the main engine of the ship. The NO_X, SO₂, and CO₂ emission concentrations are the highest during cruising, whereas the peak CO emission concentration is observed during anchoring. The average EFs of NO_X and SO₂ based on the power of the main engine are the highest during cruising, and those of CO₂ and CO are the highest after anchoring. The ship EFs are different during acceleration and deceleration. By comparing the EFs along the coast of China and the global EFs commonly used to perform the emission inventory calculations in China, the NO_X EFs under different operating conditions is observed to be generally lower than the global EFs under the corresponding operating conditions. Furthermore, the SO₂ EF is considerably affected by the sulfur content in the fuel oil and the operating conditions of the ship. The average CO₂ EFs are higher than the global EFs commonly used during cruising, and the CO EFs are higher than the global EFs under all the conditions. Our results help to supplement the EFs for this type of ship under different operating conditions, resolve the lack of emission data under anchoring conditions, and provide data support to conduct nearshore environmental monitoring and assessment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Its Impacts on Human Health)

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