Nanoparticles in European Cities and Associated Health Impacts

Abstract

Atmospheric nanoparticles are a pollutant currently unregulated through ambient air quality standards. The aim of this chapter is to assess the environmental and health impacts of atmospheric nanoparticles in European environments. This chapter begins with the conventional information on the origin of atmospheric nanoparticles, followed by their physical and chemical characteristics. A brief overview of recently published review articles on this topic is then presented to guide those readers interested in exploring any specific aspect of nanoparticles in greater detail. A further section reports a summary of recently published studies on atmospheric nanoparticles in European cities. This covers a total of about 45 sampling locations in 30 different cities within 15 European countries for quantifying levels of roadside and urban background particle number concentrations (PNCs). Average PNCs at the reviewed roadside and urban background sites were found to be 3.82 AE 3.25 Â 10 4 and 1.63 AE 0.82 Â 10 4 cm À3 , respectively, giving a roadside to background PNC ratio of~2.4. Engineered nanoparticles are one of the key emerging categories of airborne nanoparticles, especially for the indoor environments. Their ambient concentrations may increase in future due to widespread use of nanotechnology integrated products. Evaluation of their sources and probable impacts on air quality and human health are briefly discussed in the following section. Respiratory deposition doses received by the public exposed to roadside PNCs in numerous European locations are then estimated. These were found to be in the 1.17-7.56 Â 10 10 h À1 range over the studied roadside European locations. The following section discusses the potential framework for airborne nanoparticle regulations in Europe and, in addition, the existing control measures to limit nanoparticle emissions at source. The chapter finally concludes with a synthesis of the topic areas covered and highlights important areas for further work.

Air quality in the megacity of São Paulo: Evolution over the last 30 years and future perspectives

“…The authors observed the occurrence of new particle formation as a result of the photochemical process ( Figure 6). The high number of particles in the atmosphere over the MASP is related to vehicular emissions, as has been reported for other cities around the world (Kumar et al, 2010;Kumar et al, 2011aKumar et al, , 2013aKumar et al, , 2014, and the amount of black carbon in the lower stages of a cascade impactor has an impact on climate and adverse health effects.…”

Nanoparticle emissions from 11 non-vehicle exhaust sources – A review

“…A recent laboratory investigation found total PNCs about ~2.3, 5.2, 20.4, 25.1 (×10 4 ) cm -3 which were ~2, 3, 14 and 17 times over the background during cube crushing, 'wet' recycling, slab demolition and 'dry' recycling, respectively (Kumar et al, 2012c). Our recent study reviewed a total of about 45 sampling locations in 30 different cities within 15 European countries for quantifying levels of roadside PNCs (Kumar et al, 2012a). Average PNCs at the reviewed roadside were found to be 3.8±3.2 ×10 4 cm -3 .…”

“…A total of 11 major NES are comprehensively evaluated. It should be noted that the road vehicles are intentionally left out of the scope of this article since a number of well documented review articles covering their origin, characterisation, measurement methods, instrumentation, dispersion modelling and their impacts on health, visibility impairment and climate change already exist; see summary of these articles in Kumar et al (2012a) and references therein.…”

Sensitivity Analysis in the Life-Cycle Assessment of Electric vs. Combustion Engine Cars under Approximate Real-World Conditions

“…Two important species are generally missing so far in the Ei3 database [50] and are also missing in our updated inventory, namely PN (particle number) and BC (black carbon), although emission data are available (e.g., [84]). PN and BC inhalation poses a considerable health risk to humans (e.g., reference [85]). In conclusion, even with our updated real-world-oriented emission profile it is not possible to fully account for all adverse health impacts of diesel car emissions by LCA.…”