Air pollutant mapping with a mobile laboratory during the BEE-TEX field study
Abstract
The region surrounding the Houston ship channel (Texas, USA) is home to a high density of petrochemical facilities, many of which emit air toxics of concern to human health. Several residential neighborhoods also abut these industrial areas. The Aerodyne Mobile Laboratory was deployed to the Houston ship channel and surrounding areas during the Benzene and Other Toxics Exposure (BEE-TEX) field study in February of 2015. We evaluate atmospheric concentrations of volatile organic hydrocarbons and other hazardous air pollutants, including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, toluene, xylenes and ethylbenzenes, styrene and nitrogen dioxide. Measurements are focused in the Manchester neighborhood, bordered by industry on the north, a rail yard on the south and a highway on the west. Two other neighborhoods are sampled to a lesser degree: 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 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.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.A21G0148Y
- Keywords:
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- 0345 Pollution: urban and regional;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0394 Instruments and techniques;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE