Fine Scale Spatial Measurement of Air Pollution Exposure in Philadelphia using Mobile Monitoring

Particulate matter exposure is found to be associated with several adverse health effects such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has a high incidence of asthma. We currently lack a fine spatial scale air pollution data at the Philadelphia to assess the association of air pollution with such health indicators. To obtain a high-resolution spatial data, we used a mobile platform, a van equipped with fast-response air and noise pollution instruments, and a geographic positioning system (GPS). We measured the levels of particulate mass (PM₁, PM_2.5, and PM₁₀), particle number (31 size bins), black carbon, ozone, and environmental noise on 5-10 seconds intervals during summer 2019 (June-July) recording over 120 hours of measurements (>70,000 observations). A route was selected to cover various Philadelphia neighborhoods and a large spatial area (stretching 300 miles of distance) that included 7 regular land cover classes and 15 composite classes. The objective of this study is to determine the average concentrations of pollutants at Philadelphia and to evaluate the association of air pollution exposure with Center for Disease Control 500 cities project's health indicator data (asthma prevalence, COPD, coronary heart disease, and blood pressure). We hypothesize that higher air pollution exposure will be associated with high incidence of adverse health indicators. This study will present the insights of mobile measurement approach and average pollutant levels at various residential neighborhoods. Geographical Information System and statistical tools will be used to evaluate the association of exposure levels at the neighborhoods with the health indicators.