Title

Toward Cleaner Transport Alternatives: Reduction in Exposure to Air Pollutants in a Mass Public Transport

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c07004

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-7-2022

Publication Title

Environmental Science and Technology

Abstract

Commuters are often exposed to higher concentrations of air pollutants due to its proximity to mobile sources. Despite recent trends in urban transport toward zero- and low-tailpipe emission alternatives, the assessments of the impact of these transformations on commuter exposure are limited by the low frequency of such studies. In this work, we use a unique data set of personal exposure concentration measurements collected over the span of 5 years to analyze changes due to the introduction of a new fleet for Bogotá's Bus Rapid Transit System. In that system, over a thousand Euro-II and -III diesel-powered buses were replaced with Euro-VI compressed natural gas and filter-equipped Euro-V diesel buses. We measured personal exposure concentrations of equivalent black carbon (eBC), fine particulate (PM2.5), and ultra fine particles (UFP) during and after the retirement of old buses and the introduction of new ones. Observations collected prior to the fleet renewal were used as baseline and later compared to data collected over two follow-up campaigns in 2019 and 2020. Significant reductions in the concentration of PM2.5and eBC were observed during the 2019 campaign, with a 48% decrease for mean in-bus eBC (89.9 to 46.4 μg m-3) and PM2.5(180.7 to 95.4 μg m-3) concentrations. Further reductions were observed during the 2020 follow-up, when the fleet renovation was completed, with mean in-bus eBC decreasing to 17.7 μg m-3and PM2.5to 42.3 μg m-3. These observations imply nearly a 5-fold reduction in eBC exposure and a 4-fold decrease in PM2.5. There was a much smaller reduction of in-bus UFP concentration between 2019 and 2020, indicating a persistent presence of high particle number concentrations in the near-road environment despite the fleet renovation process. In-bus UFP concentrations ranged between 65 000 and 104 500 cm-3during the follow-up campaigns. The results in this work illustrate the immediate benefits of reducing personal exposure through the adoption of vehicles with more stringent emission standards.

Volume

56

Issue

11

First Page

7096

Last Page

7106

ISSN

0013936X

PubMed ID

35333524

Identifier

85127548634 (Scopus)

Documento original

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