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Dear Colleagues,

Air pollution is a public health emergency, both indoors and outdoors, although indoor environments are less studied. Nevertheless, people spend most of their time in indoor environments, which includes built environments (e.g., households, offices and schools), but also means of transport, which are usually neglected in air pollution and health studies. Indoor air quality and health studies on vehicles are still scarce and scattered, although both drivers and passengers may be exposed to high levels of air pollution during travel time, either from surrounding fixed or mobile sources or from internal and external vehicle emissions. Several pollutants are expected to highly contribute to human exposure inside vehicles, namely particulate matter, especially ultrafine particles, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon dioxide (CO₂). Drivers’ and passengers’ exposures are expected to cause health impacts that can vary from affecting driver performance to chronic health effects.

Thus, this Special Issue intends to go beyond the state-of-the-art by gathering new and/or review studies on air quality characterization inside vehicles, and/or studies that evaluate its associated health impacts. Studies on indoor air in any vehicle (car, bus, train, metro, tram, plane or boat) are welcome. Health impact studies that consider any health outcome are also welcome.

Dr. Pedro Branco
Dr. Sofia Sousa
Prof. Dr. Prashant Kumar
Guest Editors

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Keywords

indoor air
air pollution
vehicle
cabin
public transport
exposure
health impact
driver
passenger

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Research

14 pages, 2143 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Particle Number Concentration Measurements on Public Transport in Bangkok, Thailand

by James C. Matthews, Chalida Chompoobut, Panida Navasumrit, M. Anwar H. Khan, Matthew D. Wright, Mathuros Ruchirawat and Dudley E. Shallcross

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(7), 5316; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075316 - 29 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1474

Abstract

Traffic is a major source of particulate pollution in large cities, and particulate matter (PM) level in Bangkok often exceeds the World Health Organisation limits. While PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ are both measured in Bangkok regularly, the sub-micron range of PM, of specific interest in regard to possible adverse health effects, is very limited. In the study, particle number concentration (PNC) was measured on public transport in Bangkok. A travel route through Bangkok using the state railway, the mass rapid transport underground system, the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) Skytrain and public buses on the road network, with walking routes between, was taken whilst measuring particle levels with a hand-held concentration particle counter. The route was repeated 19 times covering different seasons during either morning or evening rush hours. The highest particle concentrations were found on the state railway, followed by the bus, the BTS Skytrain and the MRT underground with measured peaks of 350,000, 330,000, 33,000 and 9000 cm⁻³, respectively, though particle numbers over 100,000 cm⁻³ may be an underestimation due to undercounting in the instrument. Inside each form of public transport, particle numbers would peak when stopping to collect passengers (doors opening) and decay with a half-life between 2 and 3 min. There was a weak correlation between particle concentration on bus, train and BTS and Skytrain with carbon monoxide concentration, as measured at a fixed location in the city. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indoor Air Quality and Health in Vehicles)

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