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. 2008 Mar;10(3):305-14.
doi: 10.1039/b715429a. Epub 2008 Jan 31.

Assessment of diesel particulate matter exposure in the workplace: freight terminals

Rebecca J Sheesley  1 , James J Schauer, Thomas J Smith, Eric Garshick, Francine Laden, Linsey C Marr, Luisa T Molina
Affiliations

Assessment of diesel particulate matter exposure in the workplace: freight terminals

Rebecca J Sheesley et al. J Environ Monit. 2008 Mar.

Abstract

A large study has been undertaken to assess the exposure to diesel exhaust within diesel trucking terminals. A critical component of this assessment is an analysis of the variation in carbonaceous particulate matter (PM) across trucking terminal locations; consistency in the primary sources can be effectively tracked by analyzing trends in elemental carbon (EC) and organic molecular marker concentrations. Ambient samples were collected at yard, dock and repair shop work stations in 7 terminals in the USA and 1 in Mexico. Concentrations of EC ranged from 0.2 to 12 microg m(-3) among the terminals, which corresponds to the range seen in the concentration of summed hopanes (0.5 to 20.5 ng m(-3)). However, when chemical mass balance (CMB) source apportionment results were presented as percent contribution to organic carbon (OC) concentrations, the contribution of mobile sources to OC are similar among the terminals in different cities. The average mobile source percent contribution to OC was 75.3 +/- 17.1% for truck repair shops, 65.4 +/- 20.4% for the docks and 38.4 +/- 9.5% for the terminal yard samples. A relatively consistent mobile source impact was present at all the terminals only when considering percentage of total OC concentrations, not in terms of absolute concentrations.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Worksite concentrations of air toxics, key molecular markers, EC and OC (elemental and organic carbon).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Correlation plots for worksite concentrations of EC and OC (elemental and organic carbon) with published relationships for gasoline, high load diesel and lubricating oil-impacted exhaust included in the repair shop plot.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Correlation plots for key mobile source PAH (polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons) with OC (organic carbon) including published relationships for gasoline, high load diesel and lubricating oil-impacted exhaust in the repair shop plot.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Correlation plots for key mobile source hopanes and sterane with OC (organic carbon) including published relationships for gasoline, high load diesel and lubricating oil-impacted exhaust in the repair shop plot.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
CMB (chemical mass balance) source apportionment results of worksite OC (organic carbon) presented as a fraction of the measured OC.
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