MMAP-VEX - Measuring and Modelling Air Pollution Within Vehicles – Implications for daily EXposure and Human Health.
Overview
Background & policy context:
The air quality inside motor vehicles can be toxic. The air pollution level is higher when driving in traffic, since the vehicle cabin air is derived from the exhaust gas cloud produced by other cars and trucks in the vicinity. The EU-funded MMAP-VEX project will study the degree to which outdoor air quality is a determinable factor of health and personal air pollution exposure in passenger cars. Specifically, the project will measure multiple air pollutants within vehicles as well as directly outside/ambient. These concurrent measurements will be taken under different ventilation settings on urban, sub-urban and rural roads. MMAP-VEX findings will be used to develop modelling techniques to estimate personal exposure inside vehicle cabins under different weather and driving conditions.
Objectives:
Outdoor air pollution is accountable for at least 4.2 million deaths per year worldwide, whilst more than 80% of urban residents are exposed to outdoor air pollution levels greater than the legislative limits. As this outdoor polluted air undergoes exchange with the air inside vehicle cabins, vehicle occupants may suffer elevated exposure to ambient/outdoor air pollutants of varying extents during this time. Additionaly, personal air pollution exposure within vehicles varies not only under different ventilation settings, but also during time of the day and road type. MMAP-VEX project aims to investigate how the outdoor air quality is a determinable factor of health and personal air pollution exposure in passenger cars. MMAP-VEX will perform concurrent measurements of air pollutants within vehicles and directly outside/ambient of multiple air pollutants such as concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, PM1 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 10, 2.5 and 1 µm, respectively), ultrafine particles (UFP, with aerodynamic diameter < 300 nm), lung surface deposited area (LSDA), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), carbon dioxide (CO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOC), which are critical species in terms of air pollution exposure comparisons. The concurent measurements will take place under different ventilation settings on urban, sub-urban and rural roads. The insights from these experiments, while significant themselves, will then be used to develop modelling techniques, which, with the use of the state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, will be trained in order to estimate personal exposure inside vehicle cabins under different conditions such as cold/hot weather, air conditioning on/off or driving in urban/rural roads. MMAP-VEX research is critical for effective indoor air quality management policies, alternative, greener commuting strategies and control of daily exposure to air pollution.
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