Air pollution exposure monitoring and estimating Part I. Integrated air quality monitoring system

This paper presents an integrated exposure monitoring system, based on an e xpansion of existing air quality monitoring systems using dispersion modell ing. The system allows: (1) identifying geographical areas whose inhabitant s are most exposed to ambient pollution; (2) identifying how many people in an area are exposed to concentrations of pollution exceeding air quality g uidelines; (3) describing the exposure of population subgroups (e.g. childr en); (4) planning pollution abatement measures and quantifying their effect s: (5) establishing risk assessment and management programs, and (6) invest igating the short- and long-term effects of both pollutants and pollution s ources on public health, The effect of pollution is rarely very large and i n order to discover it: exposure estimation must provide data that reflects both spatial and temporal variations. Estimates of pollution exposure are obtained using an integrated approach that combines results of measurements from monitoring programs with dispersion calculations. These values can se rve as estimates for individual short-term or long-term exposure. The group ed data allows the expression of ambient pollution concentrations as the sp atial distribution of estimates such as the mean or 98th percentile of such compounds as SO2, O-3, NO2, PM10 and PM2.5. This integrated approach has b een combined into a single software package, AirQUIS.