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Indoor and outdoor measurements of particle number concentration in near-highway homes

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 23, pages 506–512 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Exposure to high levels of traffic-generated particles may pose risks to human health; however, limited measurement has been conducted at homes near highways. The purpose of this study was to characterize differences between indoor and outdoor particle number concentration (PNC) in homes near to and distant from a highway and to identify factors that may affect infiltration. We monitored indoor and outdoor PNC (6–3000 nm) for 1–3 weeks at 18 homes located <1500 m from Interstate-93 (I-93) in Somerville, MA (USA). Median hourly indoor and outdoor PNC pooled over all homes were 5.2 × 103 and 5.9 × 103 particles/cm3, respectively; the median ratio of indoor-to-outdoor PNC was 0.95 (5th/95th percentile: 0.42/1.75). Homes <100 m from I-93 (n=4) had higher indoor and outdoor PNC compared with homes >1000 m away (n=3). In regression models, a 10% increase in outdoor PNC was associated with an approximately equal (10.8%) increase in indoor PNC. Wind speed and direction, temperature, time of day and weekday were also associated with indoor PNC. Average mean indoor PNC was lower for homes with air conditioners compared with homes without air conditioning. These results may have significance for estimating indoor, personal exposures to traffic-related air pollution.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the members of the CAFEH Steering Committee including Edna Carrasco, Mario Davila, Baolian Kuang, Bart Laws, Michelle Liang, Ellin Reisner and Wig Zamore for their valuable contributions. We also thank the project manager Don Meglio and field team members Kevin Stone and Marie Manis for their dedication to the project. We are also grateful to José Vallarino for his assistance with fieldwork. This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Grant No. ES015462; Brugge, PI). Support for Christina H. Fuller’s pre-doctoral work was provided by a Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences Training Grant (T32 HL 007118).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Christina H Fuller

  2. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Christina H Fuller & John D Spengler

  3. Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Doug Brugge

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Paige L Williams

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Murray A Mittleman

  6. Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Murray A Mittleman

  7. Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Kevin Lane

  8. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University School of Engineering, Medford, Massachusetts, USA

    John L Durant

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  1. Christina H Fuller
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Correspondence to Christina H Fuller.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website

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Fuller, C., Brugge, D., Williams, P. et al. Indoor and outdoor measurements of particle number concentration in near-highway homes. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 23, 506–512 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2012.116

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