Concentrations and personal exposure to black carbon particles at airports and on commercial flights

The volume of passengers carried by airlines increased by 57% globally in the period 2005-2014. This value is more outstanding when observed regionally, especially in developing countries (for example, Brazil experienced a rise of 121% over the same period). This large growth of civil aviation enhances air pollution levels and poses health risks to passengers, airport workers and the population living close to airfields. We measured black carbon (BC) particle concentrations using hand-held devices within different microenvironments of 12 airports and on 41 non-smoking commercial flights, totalling 154 h of data. The largest BC concentrations were found during boarding and disembarking (mean 3.78 μg m−3), followed by large concentrations at the airport concourse (mean 3.16 μg m−3) and inside parked aircraft with open doors (mean 2.78 μg m−3). BC levels were remarkably low when the aircraft were on the ground with the doors closed (mean 0.81 μg m−3), with incidental relatively high concentrations (BC at 95th percentile = 2.82 μg m−3) suggesting that exhaust plumes from the apron enter the cabin through the ventilation system. The lowest BC concentrations were found during the flights (mean 0.20 μg m−3, 95th percentile = 0.52 μg m−3). The data show that the concourse and the transit to/from the aircraft contributed disproportionally to the personal exposure and accounted for an average of 52% and 19% of the total exposure during a journey, respectively. The results suggest that these two microenvironments should be targeted to reduce exposure of passengers and airport workers to BC particles.