Zhihua (Tina) Fan

Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences InstituteSponsored by RWJMS-UMDNJ and Rutgers University

Piscataway, NJ

NUATRC Air Toxics Workshop II

Spatial Variation of Air Toxics in a “Hot Spot”: Camden in New Jersey

June 12-13, 2007

Gaps in Understanding Health Effects of Air Toxics

Exposure to air toxics and associated health risks in “hot spots” may be under-estimated based on routine ambient air monitoring program.

Limited ambient concentration and personal exposure data of air toxics in community level

Limited spatial variation data of air toxics.

Objectives of the Main Study

To characterize local ambient and personal concentrations of air toxics in a suspected “hotspot” - the Village of Waterfront South (WFS) neighborhood in Camden, NJ.

To assess the impact of local industrial and mobile sources on measured neighborhood ambient concentrations and personal exposures in the WFS.

Background Information about the WFS

Mixed Sources of Air Toxics and high density of local emission sources

High asthma incidence rate

High carcinogenic risk predicted by NATA

Low socioeconomic-status residents

Local Emission Sources of Air Pollutants

Industrial sources A total of 26 industrial and manufacturing facilities, e.g.

Camden sewage treatment plant, recycling factory, St. Lawrence Cement Company, Camden Iron and Metal, etc.

Mobile sources Local diesel truck traffic: >100,000 trucks/year travel

through this community. HYW 676 and major roads

Urban SourcesPhiladelphia (~ 20 miles west of WFS)

Industrial Facilities in WFS

HWY 676 (Left) and Sewage Treatment Plants (right)

WFS (60 subjects)

winter summer

weekday weekendweekday weekend

CDS (40 subjects)

winter summer

weekday weekendweekday weekend

Neighborhood Ambient and Personal Measurements

24-h outdoor and personal samplesFour types of air toxic substances ( small particles, Volatile Organic Compounds, carbonyls, & Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (soot)) Baseline and Activity questionnaires and Time/Activity DiariesModeling approach

Main Study Design

Study Areas in Camden, NJ

: the fixed sampling sites

 

CDS - Reference area

WFS – Hot Spot

Objectives of the Spatial Variation Study

To characterize the spatial variation of air toxics in WFS and CDS.

To conduct accurate assessment of the impact of local sources on ambient neighborhood levels of and personal exposure to air toxics.

To identify the major sources of air toxics in the

WFS.

“Saturation Sampling”-Detailed Spatial Measurements of

Air Toxics Outdoors

A total of 38 locations were selected as sampling sites for the “saturation sampling” study.

22 in the WFS and 16 in the CDS

Sampling duration: 24 and 48 hours

Two summer and one winter sampling campaigns

Target compounds • VOCs (3M OVM badge)• Carbonyls (PAKS)

VOCs Aldehydes

1,3-Butadiene Formaldehyde

Benzene Acetaldehyde

Carbon tetrachloride Acrolein

Chloroform

Ethyl benzene

Methyl-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE)

Styrene

Toluene

Styrene

Xylenes

Target Compounds

“Saturation Sampling” Sites

Fixed SiteFixed Site

VOC and Carbonyl Samplers Placed at the “Saturation Sampling” Sites

Spatial Distribution of Toluene (g/m3) (Aug. 17-18, 2005)

PINTO BROTHERS RECYCLING. Inc.

0.00

10.00

20.00

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60.00

70.00

site-19 site-20 site-13 site-14 site-15

Sampling site in the WFS

To

luen

e c

on

cen

trati

on

(µg

/m³)

wind direction

Toluene Concentration Downwind of

the Facility (Aug. 17-18, 2005)

y = 51.535e-0.0052x

R2 = 0.9609

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Distance to W-19 (m)

To

luen

e co

nce

ntr

atio

n (

ug

/m3)

Spatial Distribution of Toluene (g/m3) (07/20-22 and 12/21-23, 2005)

Outdoor Toluene Levels Obtained from Main Study (g/m3)

Spatial Distribution of MTBE (g/m3)

Outdoor MTBE Levels Obtained from Main Study (g/m3)

CDS

WFS

Spatial Distribution of Benzene (g/m3)

Location Compound 07/20-22 08/17-18 12/21-23 CDS MTBE-Benzene 0.75 0.61 0.81 MTBE-Toluene 0.75 0.77 0.91 MTBE-Ethylbenzene 0.73 0.85 0.88 MTBE-Xylenes 0.74 0.85 0.86 WFS MTBE-Benzene 0.85 0.68 0.43 MTBE-Toluene 0.10 0.00 0.01 MTBE-Ethylbenzene 0.46 0.07 0.38 MTBE-Xylenes 0.53 0.11 0.51

Correlation Coefficients (R2) between MTBE and BETX

Spatial Distribution of Formaldehyde (g/m3)

Summary

Hot spots for MTBE and aromatic VOCs were observed in WFS, indicating the contribution of local stationary sources of these compounds to the ambient neighborhood air pollution.

The major impact of emissions from the stationary sources was observed downwind but within 300 m of the facility.

Summary-cont’d

Formaldehyde levels were found high in both areas, indicating significant impact of diesel emissions on the ambient formaldehyde air pollution in both WFS and CDS.

The small spatial variation of all the target compounds and high correlation between MTBE and BETX indicated mobile sources are the contributors to ambient air pollution in CDS.

Implications

For Air Toxic problems, “saturation sampling” and/or personal monitoring are recommended for examining the impact of industrial or other major local sources on community air pollution and potential personal exposure.

The spatial variation study can Better define the population at high exposure risks in

hot spot areas.

Identify the major air toxics sources of concerns.

Aid in developing effective controlling strategies to reduce community exposure to air toxics.

Acknowledgments

Investigators at EOHSI: P. Lioy, S.W. Wang, P.

Georgopoulos, J. Zhang, and P. Ohman-Strickland

Staff and students at EOHSI: X. Zhu, X. Wu, Q.

Meng, J. Herrington, KH. Jung, X. Tang, and M.

Rodriguez.

Collaborator at the NJ DEP: L. Bonanno

This study is supported solely by the Health

Effects Institute (HEI Agreement Number: 4703-

RFA03-1/03-15 ).