Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
As air pollution sources are closely associated with particular types of productive
activities (e.g., manufacturing) and traffic, exposure tends to be low during the night
when people stay at home. In contrast, peak exposure to air pollution occurs in
the daytime when people are at work or traveling to and from them (Briggs 2005 ).
Consequently, individual air pollution exposures exhibit significant spatial-temporal
variability - since people spend different amounts of time at different locations
throughout the day. To evaluate individual air pollution exposure more accurately,
it is necessary to take the temporal variation of both air pollution concentration and
people's daily movement into account (Briggs 2005 ;Hoeketal. 2008 ). Yet, there
has been limited research to date on exposure assessment that takes into account the
complex interaction between temporal variations in air pollution concentrations and
people's activity-travel patterns (with Gulliver and Briggs [ 2005 ] as an important
exception).
This chapter presents a method for improving air pollution exposure assessment
through integrating the spatial-temporal dynamics of pollution concentration and
detailed space-time activity patterns of individuals. Specifically, we focus on the
assessment of exposure to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter of 10 mor
less (PM 10 ) in Franklin County, Ohio (USA). Particulate matter concentrations were
first estimated with an air dispersion model using data of industrial point source
emissions in the study area. These estimates were then adjusted for background
concentrations based on data from three local monitors. Using these estimates
and an activity-travel diary dataset, two notions of exposure to air pollution were
implemented: (a) static exposure evaluated at an individual's residential location;
and (b) dynamic exposure assessed based on the locations an individual undertake
out-of-home activities and trips, including locations en route from one location to
another.
The chapter then analyzed whether there are significant differences between
static and dynamic exposures to particulate matter for individuals of various gender,
income, education, and age subgroups. It also examine whether individuals of
these subgroups experienced different levels of dynamic exposure to air pollution.
Results from the analyses did not reveal any significant difference in static and
dynamic exposure between different gender, income, education, and age subgroups.
There were also no significant differences in dynamic exposure among different
gender, education and age subgroups. But dynamic exposures for different income
subgroups were different. The chapter then provides interpretations of these results
in the specific context of the study area and limitations in the data available for
modeling the geographic patterns of air pollution.
16.2
Assessment of Individual Exposure to Air Pollution
Geographers and health researchers have long been concerned with the health
effects of people's exposure to air pollution. Essential tasks in this kind of studies
include determining the geographic distribution of pollution concentrations across
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