Monitoring of Daily Integrated Exposure of Outdoor Workers to Respirable Particulate Matter in an Urban Region of India

It is more and more recognised that an estimation of the exposure of the population to air pollutants is more relevant than the ambient air quality, since it gives a better indication of health risk. Outdoor workers in an urban region are generally of low income status and are exposed to higher levels of both indoor and outdoor air pollution. Hence respondents from this population subgroup have been selected for this study. Outdoor workers are divided into two categories, viz. traffic constables and casual outdoor workers like watchmen, roadside shopkeepers etc. Most of the respondents are from the lower income group. Each respondent is monitored for a continuous 48-hour period. The sampling frequency is once a week.