Topic：Potential Health Risk of Urban Ultrafine Particles
Speaker: 蕭大智 (台灣大學環境工程研究所教授)
Time: October 12, 2023 1:30-3:00 pm
Venue：醫學院第四講堂
Abstract：
Air pollution remains a pressing environmental challenge in the 21st century, stemming from a complex interplay of gases and aerosols. The physicochemical properties of aerosols further exacerbate their adverse effects on health and climate. In particular, ultrafine particles (UFPs, <0.1 μm in aerodynamic diameter, dp,a) can penetrate deeply into the respiratory system, posing significant health risks. Aerosol particle size is a determining index for understanding the particle transport in the atmosphere and inhalation exposure. Currently, mass concentration is used as the metric for the air quality standard of particulate matter (PM)worldwide. However, the contributions of UFPs were overlooked. Especially in a city with a high commuter vehicle demand, traffic emission dominates approximately 50% of particle number concentration. Exposure to UFPs may accumulate in the bloodstream, respiration system, and brain and the lung deposited surface area (LDSA) concentration has been used as a critical factor for health risks from UFPs exposure. Several epidemic studies on the health risks of UFP exposure haveincreased the awareness of controlling UFP emissions in urban areas, while less monitoring data of particle number concentration and size distribution are available. The direct measurement coupling with source apportionment can comprehensively characterize and quantify the potential source of UFPs.
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