Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Exposure of Cyclists to Ultra Fine Particles
Luc Int Panis, Nico Bleux, Rudi Torfs, Vinit Mishra, Bas de Geus,
Romain Meeusen, Grégory Vandenbulcke, and Isabelle Thomas
Introduction
Health research has sufficiently demonstrated that regular physical activity is beneficial
for health and lowers medical risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Commuter
cycling conveniently combines both the level of activity and the frequency neces-
sary to improve fitness
[1]
. A popular review of evidence can be found in
[2]
.
On the other hand, many people worry over the possible negative health effects of
commuter cycling: the accident and injury risks and the exposure to traffic related
air pollution. All of these possible negative effects, as well as their geographical
distribution, are studied simultaneously in the Belgian SHAPES research project
on cycling and health. In the SHAPES project we collect data on the exposure of
cyclists to particulate air pollution. A novel measuring strategy was developed
using small battery driven optical sensors which allows us to collect data on levels
of Particulate Matter (PM) while cycling in real traffic. Traffic is generally blamed
for high PM levels in urban regions.
Initial work focused on simultaneous measurements of PM10, PM2.5, PM1 and
Ultra Fine Particulate (UFP) matter. A combination of both weight based PM mea-
surements and particle numbers proves to be very useful because both are related
to distinct sources which we can identify from simultaneous video recordings
[3]
.
In this paper we report UFP levels measured while cycling on a cycling track
and the effect of the distance of the cycling track to the road on the exposure
of cyclists.
