There are local variations in the concentration of air pollutants that may not be captured by the existing monitoring networks; however, they can be important because this is where community exposures occur. Using low-cost monitors (LCM) located at relevant community locations, such as schools, can provide information on local sources, exposure and, with the participation of the community, can help to mitigate these problems. As such, this study was conducted to assess the outdoor air quality (PM and CO) at five schools in Queensland, Australia, over a period of one year using KOALA LCMs. The results allowed us to broadly conclude on the significance of local sources, such as to show that the majority of PM in the outdoor school environments did not originate from motor vehicle emissions, being more likely from other background sources such as bushfire smoke and surface dust. By comparing the data obtained by two KOALAs, one at the roadside and the other well away from roads, we estimated that only 37% of the PM near the road originated from motor vehicles. This contrasts with the known observation that, near busy roads, over 80% of particles by number originate from vehicle emissions. This study provides a model for further investigation and helps to improve the understanding of the importance of air quality among schoolchildren and the local communities.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚昆士兰州五所学校应用低成本传感器监测儿童接触空气污染的情况

空气污染物浓度存在局部差异，现有监测网络可能无法捕捉到；然而，它们可能很重要，因为这是社区暴露发生的地方。使用位于相关社区地点（例如学校）的低成本监测器 (LCM) 可以提供有关当地来源、暴露情况的信息，并且在社区的参与下，可以帮助缓解这些问题。因此，本研究旨在使用 KOALA LCM 评估澳大利亚昆士兰州五所学校一年内的室外空气质量（PM 和 CO）。结果使我们能够大致得出当地来源的重要性的结论，例如表明户外学校环境中的大多数 PM 并非源自机动车辆排放，而更有可能来自其他背景来源，例如丛林大火烟雾和地表灰尘。通过比较两个 KOALA（一个在路边，另一个远离道路）获得的数据，我们估计道路附近的 PM2.5 中只有 37% 来自机动车。这与已知的观察结果形成鲜明对比，已知的观察结果是，在繁忙道路附近，超过 80% 的颗粒物数量源自车辆排放。这项研究为进一步调查提供了一个模型，有助于提高学童和当地社区对空气质量重要性的理解。