Environmental time-activity patterns from 2019 to 2025: changing patterns of exposure to different environments depend on work status and job type.

TPS 652: Air pollution exposure modeling 2, Exhibition Hall, Ground floor, August 28, 2019, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM Background/ aim: In the research of individual pollution exposure measurement, determination of time-activity pattern is an important factor. Many researches used questionnaire survey to obtain data. Which was inaccurate and time consuming. Therefor we developed a platform to identify the time-activity pattern based on a real-time personal exposure positioning system. Methods: The platform has three modules: data collection module, computing module, and visualization module. Data collection module collects data of real time position, step number, movement speed, moving acceleration, and so on. Computing module matches the time-activity pattern of subject, and monitors the status of hardware. Visualization module offers interface of spatio-temporal data visualization, and the predicted time-activity pattern. The hardware includes: Mobile phone (including sim card) and Wi-Fi in indoor environments. Mobile phone terminal was installed different APP for researcher and research subjects separately. The indoor environments of each research subject often remaining will be equipment with Wi-Fi. The system can identify and distinguish the identity of each individual according to the unique MAC address of each wearable device, and then to judge whether the research object is in indoor or outdoor environment. While the positioning of outdoor environment will need to be provided with positioning interface by Baidu map (Baidu, Inc.), and obtain latitude, longitude, poi and other relevant location information of the individual. Results: this system overcomes several disadvantages in questionnaire survey. And can recognize the time-activity pattern of research subject, including: indoor/outdoor, walking, running, ridding, driving, taking buses, taking subway. Conclusions: The platform will provide technical support for time-activity pattern determination of conducting large-scale personal exposure assessment.

Comparison of Time-Activity Patterns in Different Periods in Tianjin, China

We aimed to characterize the black carbon (BC) exposure from eight types of jobs involving diesel engine vehicles—namely, machinery operation, forklift operation, automobile assembly, garbage collection, garbage truck driving, delivery, toll operation, and crane operation—across seven industries. The workers chosen for this study (N = 106) measured their exposure every minute using an AE51 microAethalometer affixed to a microcyclone and also recorded their time-activity patterns and whereabouts in detail during working hours. We then categorized and analyzed 71,987 of these 1-min observations based on four potential exposure determinants: the operation of a diesel engine vehicle (yes or no), proximity to the source of BC (near or far), location of the workplace (indoor or outdoor), and type of work (moving or stationary). Among the participants, the geometric mean (GM) exposure was highest for forklift operators in indoor environments (9.5 µg m−3), followed by toll operators (GM = 7.4 µg m−3), machinery operators (GM = 7.4 µg m−3), and garbage collectors (GM = 5.5 µg m−3). After accounting for the random effects of the individual workers and working dates (evaluated per occupation) as well as the fixed effects of the determinants and their pairwise interaction terms (p < 0.001), we found that all four of the determinants significantly differed in their associated levels of BC exposure. In particular, working near instead of far from diesel engine equipment doubled the average level of exposure. Additionally, upon investigating different combinations of the determinants, we identified proximity to diesel exhaust sources and indoor working conditions as the main factors of BC exposure. Thus, installing diesel particulate filters on diesel engine vehicles effectively reduces exposure. Our findings potentially contribute to the development of a model that predicts the level of exposure for various types of jobs.

Background: Many epidemiological studies use outdoor concentrations of air pollutants as a proxy for personal exposure. However, exposure will result not only to these outdoor concentrations but to the concentrations in the different microenvironments in which a person spends time. In recent years technology has improved such that personal monitoring of indoor and outdoor micro environments is possible. While there is a growing literature on time activity patterns and micro-environment exposures for populations in the USA and Europe, little research on this topic has been carried out in the Middle East. Amis: To explore the influence of Time-Activity Patterns on personal exposure to PM2.5 in different microenvironments in Al Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. Methods: 28 students aged between 16-18 years old were recruited and asked to record their detailed movements on a time-activity diary, at 15 minute intervals, over 24 hours and to carry a small backpack containing a personal air monitor, to measure personal exposure to PM2.5, as well as a GPS device to help identify microenvironments, including travelling, outdoors, at school, at home, and inside other locations. Results: The majority of total time spent was indoors (88.7%) similar to figures reported in EU and North America studies. Indoor away from home microenvironments (shops, restaurants & gyms) had the highest PM2.5 concentrations (86 ?g/m3) followed by transport (car, bus, taxi) (65 ?g/m3) and outdoor away from home (park, beach) (52 ?g/m3). Lowest PM2.5 concentrations were found indoors at school and home (29 ?g/m3) and (36 ?g/m3) respectively. All microenvironment categories exceed the reference concentration (25 ?g/m3) of WHO air quality guideline. Conclusion: The time activity patterns and microenvironment PM concentrations in the Middle East are not well characterised. While there appear to be similarities between time activity patterns in this small population sample from the Middle East and Europe/USA, the exposure levels in this industrial city appear very high.

The Korea Simulation Exposure Model for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (KoSEM-PM) was developed to estimate population PM2.5 exposure in Korea. The data were acquired based on 59,945 min of the actual microenvironmental PM2.5 measurements and on the time–activity patterns of 8072 residents of Seoul. The aims of the study were to estimate daily PM2.5 exposure of Seoul population, and to determine the characteristics of a high exposure group. KoSEM-PM estimated population exposures by applying the PM2.5 distribution to the matching time–activity patterns at 10-min intervals. The mean personal PM2.5 exposure level of the surveyed subjects in Seoul was 26.0 ± 2.7 µg/m3 (range: 21.0–40.2 µg/m3) in summer. Factors significantly associated with high exposure included day of the week, age, industry sector, job type, and working hours. Individuals surveyed on Saturdays were more likely to be in the high exposure group than those surveyed on weekdays and Sundays. Younger, non-office-working individuals with longer working hours were more likely to be in the high exposure group. KoSEM-PM could be a useful tool to estimate population exposure levels to other region in Korea; to expand its use, microenvironmental measurements are required for other region in Korea.

Space–Time Modeling of Exposures to Traffic-Related Air Pollution

Indoor air quality and environmental tobacco smoke: Concentration and exposure

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has become an important concern in Dubai, driven by public health awareness, environmental regulations, and government initiatives. The Dubai Municipality has introduced guidelines and standards for IAQ in residential and non-residential buildings, emphasizing ventilation, material selection, and testing protocols. IAQ monitoring and testing are encouraged, and public awareness campaigns educate individuals about IAQ and its impact on health. Green building regulations in Dubai also address IAQ considerations. The Dubai Municipality has comprehensively assessed IAQ in public buildings, leading to stringent regulations. However, research on IAQ improvement and challenges associated with apartment ventilation systems is limited. This study aims to evaluate the IAQ improvement and potential issues of a ventilation system in an apartment through a mock-up experiment. Factors such as air volume, ventilation system type, and supply/exhaust duct configuration are analyzed. The results show that installing a ventilation device with a ventilation rate of 0.3–0.8 times/h reduces Formaldehyde (HCHO) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) concentrations by 30%–50%. The IAQ improvement is not significantly influenced by air volume. Each room supply/exhaust method shows a 10% higher reduction in VOC concentrations than the supply/kitchen exhaust unit method. Preventing backflow and addressing cold drafts are recommended during ventilation system installation. Noise measurements comply with standards in most cases. These findings contribute to developing guidelines for ventilation system design and installation in apartments, promoting healthier indoor environments. Further research with a broader range of ventilation devices and real-world conditions is recommended to validate these findings.

Sick buildings throughout the nation have been vacated, demolished, or totally refurbished at costs that often exceed the original cost of the building because of indoor air quality (IAQ) issues. A valuable commercial building in South Florida sits vacant today because it's contaminated with anthrax. New exclusions are appearing on insurance contracts for architects, engineers, and contractors, as well as homeowners—mold, an IAQ issue. IAQ is today becoming one of the biggest concerns of a building's occupants, its owners, and its managers, as well as architects, engineers, and the construction industry. The recent increase in litigation related to mold, an IAQ issue, combined with the September 11th attacks and the bioterrorism events of the following October, has raised the issue of building air quality safety to the highest level. While IAQ and mold issues are today not regulated by governmental agencies, building owners, managers, design professionals, and constructors are being held responsible for the health and safety of the air quality in buildings. Both OSHA and EPA have established guidelines and recommendations related to IAQ issues, and several organizations, including CDC, NIOSH, and USACE, are in the process of developing guidelines for “protecting” a building's indoor air quality. Today, it is absolutely essential that those responsible for buildings take actions to ensure that workplace air quality is maintained so as to be safe and secure from health hazards. Events of 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax incidents, combined with the aging of our buildings and litigation related to mold and other IAQ issues, have made it apparent that the air quality in our buildings is not as safe and secure as it should be. Given the present status of IAQ litigation and the heightened concerns of terrorism and other extreme incidents which could impact a building's air quality, action is required. Unfortunately, while a great deal of attention is being focused on the general infrastructure and responder training since 9/11, little attention is being focused on protection of our workplace's most critical asset—its people and the air they breathe in the workplace. In order to fully address the health and safety of a building's air quality, an indoor or building air quality safety program is required. An IAQ safety program would be expected to provide the engineering controls and systems capable of protecting a building's air quality, in addition to the policies and training procedures of building operators, maintenance personnel, managers, and occupants in maintaining safe air quality in buildings and initiating appropriate response actions to protect occupants in the event of an IAQ incident or threat. This article, while presenting information on addressing the typical issues related to IAQ concerns, discusses protecting the air quality in buildings and developing the safety programs, plans, and procedures along with the engineering controls necessary to help ensure the health and safety of air quality in buildings. The proactive and protective recommendations discussed in this article, starting with the installation of a dedicated outdoor air system designed to pre-condition the fresh air that enters a building, and development of an IAQ safety program can be readily implemented in any C & I facility. The concept of an IAQ safety program is not new. Some forward-thinking organizations have implemented such plans, even though it is not required by regulatory authorities (OSHA, EPA, or AHJs). The IAQ safety program recommended herein is intended to address conventional IAQ issues of mold, ventilation, and contamination, etc., but goes a step further and addresses the vulnerability of the BAQ from unexpected incidents including spills, fires, explosions or chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) issues which, in our present environment, must be addressed. This article also describes a dedicated outdoor air system intended to function as a BAQ protection system (building air quality protection system) designed to pre-treat all the fresh air to a building and protect a building's air quality from external sources of contamination. The BAQ protection system, a dedicated outdoor air system which functions as an outdoor air pre-treatment system with control dampers and associated interlocks capable of sealing the building's outdoor air ducts for protection, serves to address humidity levels and building pressurization in both new and existing buildings. The BAQ protection system significantly reduces HVAC system energy for both heating and cooling by eliminating the latent (moisture) load from the building's HVAC system. This system has been identified as one of the most promising energy savings technology by USDOE.

Objectives: Time-activity studies have become an integral part of comprehensive exposure assessment and personal exposure modeling. The aims of this study were to estimate exposure levels to nitrogen dioxide(<TEX>$NO_2$</TEX>) and volatile organic compounds(VOCs), and to compare estimated exposures by using time-activity patterns and indoor air concentrations. Methods: The major microenvironments for office workers were selected using the Time-Use Survey conducted by the National Statistical Office in Korea in 2009. A total of 9,194 and 6,130 workers were recruited for weekdays and weekends, respectively, from the Time-Use Survey. It appears that workers were spending about 50% of their time in the house and about 30% of their time in other indoor areas during the weekdays. In addition, we analyzed the time-activity patterns of 20 office workers and indoor air concentrations in Daegu using a questionnaire and time-activity diary. Estimated exposures were compared with measured concentrations using the time-weighted average analysis of air pollutants. Conclusions: According to the time-activity pattern for the office workers, time spent in the residence indoors during the summer and winter have been shown as <TEX>$11.12{\pm}2.20$</TEX> hours and <TEX>$12.48{\pm}1.77$</TEX> hours, respectively, which indicates higher hours in the winter. Time spent in the office in the summer has been shown to be 1.5 hours higher than in the winter. The target pollutants demonstrate a positive correlation (<TEX>$R^2=0.076{\sim}0.553$</TEX>)in the personal exposure results derived from direct measurement and estimated personal exposure concentrations by applying the time activity pattern, as well as measured concentration of the partial environment to the TWA model. However, these correlations were not statistically significant. This may be explained by the difference being caused by other indoor environments, such as a bar, cafe, or diner.

Atmospheric particles are a major environmental health risk. Assessments of air pollution related health burden are often based on outdoor concentrations estimated at residential locations, ignoring spatial mobility, time-activity patterns, and indoor exposures. The aim of this work is to quantify impacts of these factors on outdoor-originated fine particle exposures of school children.We apply nested WRF-CAMx modelling of PM2.5 concentrations, gridded population, and school location data. Infiltration and enrichment factors were collected and applied to Athens, Kuopio, Lisbon, Porto, and Treviso. Exposures of school children were calculated for residential and school outdoor and indoor, other indoor, and traffic microenvironments. Combined with time-activity patterns six exposure models were created. Model complexity was increased incrementally starting from residential and school outdoor exposures.Even though levels in traffic and outdoors were considerably higher, 80–84% of the exposure to outdoor particles occurred in indoor environments. The simplest and also commonly used approach of using residential outdoor concentrations as population exposure descriptor (model 1), led on average to 26% higher estimates (15.7 μg/m3) compared with the most complex model (# 6) including home and school outdoor and indoor, other indoor and traffic microenvironments (12.5 μg/m3). These results emphasize the importance of including spatial mobility, time-activity and infiltration to reduce bias in exposure estimates.

A proper indoor environment in residential buildings is crucial for the occupants comfort. Several studies have analyzed the impact of the increased CO2 concentrations on indoor air quality (IAQ) complaints and health symptoms in buildings. Many recent studies have shown that non-residential buildings have significant indoor environmental problems, while ventilation levels are below the recommended rates. It is found that air flow rates below 10 l/s and increased IAQ and health symptoms among the occupants. Magnitude of the outdoor air flow to the room, in the residential buildings, determines EN-15251 Standard. This article presents the numerical simulations of mixing carbon dioxide generated by people with air distributed by the system of mechanical ventilation to the rooms in the residential building.

CO2 based occupancy detection algorithm: Experimental analysis and validation for office and residential buildings

A review of strategies for building energy management system: Model predictive control, demand side management, optimization, and fault detect & diagnosis

Indoor Air Quality at Restaurants and Bars in Evening Hours in Korea