On-site and off-site material preparation pavement approaches on particle emission and associated health impacts on workers

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The resurfacing of urban road networks is a prevalent practice for extending their life and therefore shares an important contribution to the road transport emissions because of the varying practices of resurfacing with the type of highway owing to its associated cost. This study has been performed to analyze the particulate matter (PM) emission from two different approaches i.e. on-site and off-site material preparation for resurfacing of asphalt road. The distribution of particle number concentration (PNC) in the microenvironments (MEs) around the activity and associated exposure to the workers were also studied. The total PM emission was calculated for both of the approaches by using non-road model and fixed emission factor of AP-42. The highly worker-dependent on-site practice has shown great concern compared to well-equipped off-site, due to high emissions at the pavement site. More contribution of PM at pavement site leads the significant presence of PNC in the working MEs around the activities. At the pavement site of on-site practices, 60% of worker’s were engaged within 25 m of fixed major activity MEs, where activities contribute 59.7% accumulation mode (0.5 µm) and 72.1% coarser mode (1 µm–10 µm) particle in total hourly measured PNC. This emission was 7.2 times to that of off-site practices where 53% of workers were engaged in major source activity (i.e. layering of asphalt). The average respiratory deposition dose in head airways (DFHA), tracheobronchial (DFTB), and alveolar (DFAL) regions were 2.3 × 107, 1.9 × 106 and 1.2 × 107 particles h−1, respectively. The results of the average total dose of deposition of particles were 2.1 times than that of the results of off-site practice. The research findings provide an understanding of particle distribution around pavement activity and health exposure of the worker’s. Particle number concentration at pavement site microenvironment during layering of the road surface by on-site (a) and off-site material preparation pavement approaches. Respiratory deposition doses (RDD) value for worker’s working at on-site (c) and (d) off-site.