Monitoring and georeferencing of personal exposure to atmospheric particulate

Exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) in urban environments is characterized by high spatial and temporal variability, due to the interaction of anthropic and environmental factors. The aim of this study was to develop a protocol for continuous monitoring of personal exposure to PM and for the contextual analysis of the position of selected subjects for short urban routes. The personal exposure to PM 2.5 and PM 10 of selected subjects was determined by a direct-reading instrument (photometer), associated with a GPS system, to geo-reference of the exposure data along each individual path. The results - here referred specifically to two of the monitored subjects - showed that the proposed approach allows to analyze the time course of exposure to PM, and thus to precisely identify and quantify possible exposure peaks. This approach, if applied to a wider number of subjects, would allow to analyze the spatial variability of PM in the investigated area, and hence to identify possible hot-spots of PM exposure in the urban area and low-impact paths for personal exposure to PM.