In-Vehicle Air Pollutant Exposures from Daily Commute in the San Francisco Bay Area, California

Abstract

With urbanization and increased vehicle usage, understanding the exposure to air pollutants inside the vehicles is vital for developing strategies to mitigate associated health risks. In-vehicle air quality influences the comfort of the driver during long commutes and has gained significant interest. This study focuses on studying in-vehicle air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, an urban setting with significant traffic congestion and varied emission sources and road conditions. Each trip is about 80.5 km (50 miles) in length, with commute times of approximately one hour. Two low-cost portable sensors were employed to simultaneously measure in-vehicle pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, and CO2) during morning and evening rush hours from May 2023 to December 2023. Seasonally averaged PM2.5 varied from 5.07 µg/m3 to 6.55 µg/m3 during morning rush hours and from 4.38 µg/m3 to 4.47 µg/m3 during evening rush hours. In addition, the impacts of local PM2.5, vehicle ventilation settings, and speed of the vehicle on in-vehicle PM concentrations were also analyzed. CO2 buildup in vehicles was studied for two scenarios: one with inside recirculation enabled (RC on) and the other with circulation from outside (RC off). With RC off, CO2 concentrations are largely within the 1100 ppm range recommended by many organizations, while the average CO2 concentrations can be three times high under recirculation mode. This research suggests that low-cost sensors can provide valuable insights into the dynamics of air pollution in the in-vehicle microenvironment, which can better help commuters reduce health risks.