Air pollution exposure assessment simulation of babies in a bike trailer and implication for mitigation measures

ABSTRACT

Young children are a vulnerable population cohort. They receive higher exposure to particulate matter than adults in outdoor roadside environments, necessitating research on an unexplored area of exposure to young children in electric bike trailers. We simulated the exposure profiles of an adult cyclist and young children sitting in a bike-trailer attached to it for multiple air pollutants – particulate matter ≤10µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), ≤2.5µm (PM2.5;fine particles), ≤1µm (PM1), BC, and CO2 – during the school run in the morning and afternoon hours. We assessed the differences in their exposure concentrations and analysed the impact of trailer covers and COVID-19 lockdown restrictions via simultaneous measurements under six settings forming three scenarios (i) bike-trailer versus adult cyclist height;(ii) bike-trailer with and without the cover;and (iii) exposure during the lockdown and eased-lockdown periods. We carried out a total of 82 single runs covering a length of 176 km. These runs were repeated on a 2.1 km long predefined route between an origin (University campus) and destination (a local school) to simulate morning drop-off (0800-1000h;local time) and afternoon pick-up (1500-1700h) times of school children. Substantial variability was observed in concentrations of measured pollutants within each run (e.g., up to 97% for BC) and between different runs (e.g., ∼93% for PM2.5 during morning versus afternoon) in bike-trailer. Compared with cyclist height, the average bike-trailer concentration of fine and coarse particles was higher by up to 14% and 18%, respectively, during both morning and afternoon runs. The lockdown restrictions when schools were closed led to a reduction in bike-trailer PM2.5 concentrations by up to 91% compared with eased lockdown period when schools re-opened in March 2021. Trailer covers led up to 50% (fine particles) and 24% (BC;a component of PM2.5) reductions in concentrations compared with trailers without cover. Young children carried in bike trailers are exposed to higher air pollution concentrations compared with the cyclist, particularly during peak morning periods at urban pollution hotspots such as traffic lights.