A new study by researchers across King's describes the development of the London Hybrid Exposure Model (LHEM) which calculates exposure of the Greater London population to pollution sources, in-buildings, in-vehicles, and outdoors.

Studies that estimate the are based on methods, which assume that we only breathe in the air in our local neighbourhoods. But how much time do people actually spend there?

Funded by the NERC Traffic Pollution & Health in London project, using anonymous activity data (provided by Transport for London ), and advanced air pollution and micro-environmental modelling, the team have developed the LHEM to begin to look at this problem from a different angle. The model looks at where Londoners spend their time, and what is in the air that they are breathing whilst in these places.

Our findings show that, on average, many studies are over-estimating Londoners exposure to outdoor air pollution, but that there are also many people whose exposure is being under-estimated. These people tend to spend long periods in transport, such as in the car or on the bus, where they are exposed to higher levels of NO2 and PM2.5 .

We also conclude that since most people spend a lot of time indoors, that sources of pollution in the home, office or school are very important in estimating exposure to air pollution, but that this is not currently commonly considered in health studies.

Read the paper in Environmental Science & Toxicology here.

King's have produced an interactive micro-site to allow further exploration of the data here.

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Item date 06/06/2017