Pedestrian exposure to airborne ultrafine particles: investigating street canyons in the heritage city of Kandy

Abstract

Traffic emission constitutes the ultrafine particles which play a major role in atmospheric nanoparticles induced health effects on pulmonary, cardiovascular and nervous systems. Thus there is a considerable scientific interest in personal exposure to ultrafine particles and this study presents an experimental investigation of pedestrian exposure to street canyons in mostly populated streets in the heritage city of Kandy. Experimental results explicitly proves majority of the upwind pavements of all Sixteen street canyons are above the overall world standards of mean Particle Number Concentration levels. Thus the findings inform a health risk in the city of Kandy which will instigate a future national dilemma.