Air Pollutant Mapping with a Mobile Laboratory during the BEE-TEX Field Study

Abstract

The Aerodyne Mobile Laboratory was deployed to the Houston Ship Channel and surrounding areas during the Benzene and Other Toxics Exposure field study in February 2015. We evaluated atmospheric concentrations of volatile organic hydrocarbons and other hazardous air pollutants of importance to human health, including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, toluene, xylenes, ethylbenzenes, styrene, and NO2. Ambient concentration measurements were focused on the neighborhoods of Manchester, Harrisburg, and Galena Park. The most likely measured concentration of 1,3-butadiene in the Manchester neighborhood (0.17 ppb) exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency’s E-5 lifetime cancer risk level of 0.14 ppb. In all the three neighborhoods, the measured benzene concentration falls below or within the E-5 lifetime cancer risk levels of 0.4–1.4 ppb for benzene. Pollution maps as a function of wind direction show the impact of nearby sources.

The evolution of environmental forensics: From laboratory to field analysis

“…Most of these are vehicle‐mounted and the size of a van, and although not all necessarily incorporate field‐portable equipment, they are significantly more mobile than the laboratories described thus far. A range of air pollutants can be measured, including small molecules, such as nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, as well as particle mass measurement, black carbon (Hagemann et al, ; Maciejczyk et al, ; Pirjola et al, ; Seakins, Lansley, Hodgson, Huntley, & Pope, ) and volatile organic compounds, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, 1,3‐butadiene and styrene (Knighton et al, ; Yacovitch et al, ). Some researchers have demonstrated a mobile laboratory capable of measuring all of these air pollutants (Levy et al, ).…”

Engaged environmental science for underserved youth

“…Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately challenged by financial stressors and are less likely to live in affluent areas or owner-occupied homes, which often limits access to high-quality public schools and other neighborhood amenities (Grunsky, Mattingly, and Varner 2017). Housing located near industrial areas is typically more affordable; however, living in close proximity to emitters of environmental hazards can induce additional burdens on health, thereby reducing quality of life (Bullard and Johnson 2000; Chakraborty et al 2014; Yacovitch et al 2015). The fourth lesson introduced household-level exposures to chemical hazards, including contaminants commonly present in yard soil and endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in certain consumer products.…”

Application of a mobile laboratory using a selected-ion flow-tube mass spectrometer (SIFT-MS) for characterisation of volatile organic compounds and atmospheric trace gases

“…But SIFT-MS can be used with careful selection of compounds, which ensures that target emissions sources can be investigated at an appropriate time resolution. The utilisation of multiple reagent ions allows for measurements of VOCs and trace gases across a wide range of applications such as breath analysis (Španěl and Smith, 2008;Castada and Barringer, 2019), analysis of emissions from consumer products (Langford et al, 2019;Yeoman et al, 2020) and ambient air quality measurements (Prince et al, 2010;Crilley et al, 2019). These studies present successful measurements of a wide range of VOCs and atmospheric trace gases, showing that SIFT-MS is suitable for measurements in urban areas.…”

“…Early on-road measurements of VOCs using PTR-MS in a mobile laboratory were carried out by the Aerodyne Research Institute in vehicle plume-chase experiments (Kolb et al, 2004;Herndon et al, 2005). More recent measurements carried out by Aerodyne (Knighton et al, 2012;Yacovitch et al, 2015) have focused on spatial mapping of petrochemical emissions. VOC emissions from the oil and gas industry, such as benzene, toluene and other aromatics, have also been investigated using PTR-MS in a mobile laboratory (Warneke et al, 2014).…”