Exploratory study to measure respirable particulate material in bi-users in Engativá, Bogotá

Abstract

In Bogotá approximately 900,000 bicycle trips are made daily, this being a sustainable and environmentally friendly means of mobility. Users who use this means of transport are being exposed to poor air quality, which has resulted in high levels of acute respiratory diseases, generated by exposure to high doses of particulate material that is suspended in the air, as a result of emissions from fixed and mobile sources. At the Universidad Libre, Bosque Popular headquarters, approximately 500 students, teachers and administrators move by bicycle, of which 60 % travel on the route from Bonanza Medellin Avenue(80 street), Rojas Avenue, to the University, that way does not have a bike path and therefore cyclists are exposed to breathing more amounts of this pollutant. The present work focuses on the analysis, modeling of the results obtained from the measurement of particulate material breathable by cyclists in their daily journey route previously mentioned and the comparation with the permissible limits, in order to identify the risk levels to which cyclists are exposed. The complexity of this experiment lies in the sampling “environment”, understood as mobility routes since they are open spaces where there are a number of uncontrolled aspects in contrast to hygiene sampling in normal work spaces and the application of an Industrial hygiene study carried out on the topic of bicycle mobility, which has not been carried out before.