We measured the spatial pattern of particle number (PN) concentrations downwind from the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with an instrumented vehicle that enabled us to cover larger areas than allowed by traditional stationary measurements. LAX emissions adversely impacted air quality much farther than reported in previous airport studies. We measured at least a 2-fold increase in PN concentrations over unimpacted baseline PN concentrations during most hours of the day in an area of about 60 km2 that extended to 16 km (10 miles) downwind and a 4- to 5-fold increase to 8–10 km (5–6 miles) downwind. Locations of maximum PN concentrations were aligned to eastern, downwind jet trajectories during prevailing westerly winds and to 8 km downwind concentrations exceeded 75 000 particles/cm3, more than the average freeway PN concentration in Los Angeles. During infrequent northerly winds, the impact area remained large but shifted to south of the airport. The freeway length that would cause an impact equivalent to that measured in this study (i.e., PN concentration increases weighted by the area impacted) was estimated to be 280–790 km. The total freeway length in Los Angeles is 1500 km. These results suggest that airport emissions are a major source of PN in Los Angeles that are of the same general magnitude as the entire urban freeway network. They also indicate that the air quality impact areas of major airports may have been seriously underestimated.
Mobile monitoring has provided a means for broad spatial measurements of air pollutants that are otherwise impractical to measure with multiple fixed site sampling strategies. However, the larger the mobile monitoring route the less temporally dense measurements become, which may limit the usefulness of short-term mobile monitoring for applications that require long-term averages. To investigate the stationarity of short-term mobile monitoring measurements, we calculated long term medians derived from a mobile monitoring campaign that also employed 2-week integrated passive sampler detectors (PSD) for NO x , Ozone, and nine volatile organic compounds at 43 intersections distributed across the entire city of Baltimore, MD. This is one of the largest mobile monitoring campaigns in terms of spatial extent undertaken at this time. The mobile platform made repeat measurements every third day at each intersection for 6-10 minutes at a resolution of 10 s. In two-week periods in both summer and winter seasons, each site was visited 3-4 times, and a temporal adjustment was applied to each dataset. We present the correlations between eight species measured using mobile monitoring and the 2-week PSD data and observe correlations between mobile NO x measurements and PSD NO x measurements in both summer and winter (Pearson's r = 0.84 and 0.48, respectively). The summer season exhibited the strongest correlations between multiple pollutants, whereas the winter had comparatively few statistically significant correlations. In the summer CO was correlated with PSD pentanes (r = 0.81), and PSD NO x was correlated with mobile measurements of black carbon (r = 0.83), two ultrafine particle count measures (r =0.8), and intermodal (1-3 μm) particle counts (r = 0.73). Principal Component Analysis of the combined PSD and mobile monitoring data revealed multipollutant features * eriley1@uw.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. HHS Public AccessAuthor manuscript Atmos Environ (1994 Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript consistent with light duty vehicle traffic, diesel exhaust and crankcase blow by. These features were more consistent with published source profiles traffic-related air pollutants than features based on the PSD data alone. Short-term mobile monitoring shows promise for capturing longterm spatial patterns of traffic-related air pollution, and is complementary to PSD sampling strategies.
A mobile monitoring platform developed at the University of Washington Center for Clean Air Research (CCAR) measured 10 pollutant metrics (10 s measurements at an average speed of 22 km/hr) in two neighborhoods bordering a major interstate in Albuquerque, NM, USA from April 18-24 2012. 5 days of data sharing a common downwind orientation with respect to the roadway were analyzed. The aggregate results show a three-fold increase in black carbon (BC) concentrations within 10 meters of the edge of roadway, in addition to elevated nanoparticle concentration and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 1 μm (PN1) concentrations. A 30% reduction in ozone concentration near the roadway was observed, anti-correlated with an increase in the oxides of nitrogen (NOx). In this study, the pollutants measured have been expanded to include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), particle size distribution (0.25-32 μm), and ultra-violet absorbing particulate matter (UVPM). The raster sampling scheme combined with spatial and temporal measurement alignment provide a measure of variability in the near roadway concentrations, and allow us to use a principal component analysis to identify multi-pollutant features and analyze their roadway influences.
Background-Large-scale animal feeding operations compromise regional air quality in the rural United States through emission of pollutants such as ammonia gas. Exposure to airborne pollution from animal feeding operations may cause pediatric asthma exacerbations in surrounding communities. Objectives-To describe spatial and temporal patterns in ambient ammonia concentrations in an agricultural region, and to investigate associations between short-term fluctuations in ammonia and subsequent changes in respiratory health in children with asthma. Methods-For 13 months in the Yakima Valley of Washington State, 14 monitors sampled ammonia in outdoor air for 24-hour periods every 6 days. School-age children with asthma (n=51) were followed for two health outcomes: biweekly reports of asthma symptoms and quick relief medication usage, and daily measurements of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). We assessed associations between each outcome and ammonia using generalized estimating equations.
Background Large-scale animal feeding operations compromise regional air quality in the rural United States through emission of pollutants such as ammonia gas. Exposure to airborne pollution from animal feeding operations may cause pediatric asthma exacerbations in surrounding communities. Objectives To describe spatial and temporal patterns in ambient ammonia concentrations in an agricultural region, and to investigate associations between short-term fluctuations in ammonia and subsequent changes in respiratory health in children with asthma. Methods For 13 months in the Yakima Valley of Washington State, 14 monitors sampled ammonia in outdoor air for 24-hour periods every 6 days. School-age children with asthma (n=51) were followed for two health outcomes: biweekly reports of asthma symptoms and quick relief medication usage, and daily measurements of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). We assessed associations between each outcome and ammonia using generalized estimating equations. Results 24-hour ammonia concentrations varied from 0.2 to 238.1 μg/m3 during the study period and displayed a strong correlation with proximity to animal feeding operations. FEV1% was 3.8% lower (95% CI: 0.2, 7.3) per interquartile increase in one-day lagged ammonia concentration and 3.0% lower (95% CI: 0.5, 5.8) for two-day lagged concentration. We observed no associations between self-reported asthma symptoms or medication usage and estimated ammonia exposure. Conclusions Ammonia concentrations were elevated in this community and strongly predicted by proximity to animal feeding operations. Ammonia's association with acute lung function decrements in children with asthma in the surrounding community may be causal or, alternatively, ammonia may be a marker for other pollutants from animal feeding operations associated with respiratory effects.
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