Zhihua (Tina) Fan

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

• Zhihua (Tina) Fan
• Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
  Institute
• Sponsored by RWJMS-UMDNJ and Rutgers University
• Piscataway, NJ
• NUATRC Air Toxics Workshop II

June 12-13, 2007
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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.

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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.

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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

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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 gt100,000 trucks/year
  travel through this community.
• HYW 676 and major roads
• Urban Sources
• Philadelphia ( 20 miles west of WFS)

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Industrial Facilities in WFS
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HWY 676 (Left) and Sewage Treatment Plants (right)
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Main Study Design
Neighborhood Ambient and Personal Measurements
WFS (60 subjects)
CDS (40 subjects)
summer
summer
winter
winter
weekend
weekday
weekend
weekday
weekday
weekend
weekday
weekend
24-h outdoor and personal samples Four types of
air toxic substances ( small particles, Volatile
Organic Compounds, carbonyls, Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons (soot)) Baseline and
Activity questionnaires and Time/Activity
Diaries Modeling approach
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Study Areas in Camden, NJ
WFS Hot Spot
CDS - Reference area
the fixed sampling sites
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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.

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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)

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Target Compounds
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Saturation Sampling Sites
Fixed Site
Fixed Site
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VOC and Carbonyl Samplers Placed at the
Saturation Sampling Sites


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Spatial Distribution of Toluene (?g/m3) (Aug.
17-18, 2005)
PINTO BROTHERS RECYCLING. Inc.
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Toluene Concentration Downwind of the Facility
(Aug. 17-18, 2005)
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Spatial Distribution of Toluene (?g/m3) (07/20-22
and 12/21-23, 2005)
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Outdoor Toluene Levels Obtained from Main Study
(?g/m3)
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Spatial Distribution of MTBE (?g/m3)
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Outdoor MTBE Levels Obtained from Main Study
(?g/m3)
CDS
WFS
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Spatial Distribution of Benzene (?g/m3)
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Correlation Coefficients (R2) between MTBE and
BETX
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Spatial Distribution of Formaldehyde (?g/m3)
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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.

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Summary-contd

• 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.

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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.

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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 ).