Monitoring Residential Woodsmoke in BC

Transcription

1 Monitoring Residential Woodsmoke in BC MATTHEW WAGSTAFF UBC - MSc in OEH Candidate BC LUNG ASSOCIATION WEBINAR October 25 th 2017

2 Acknowledgements Lil wat and K'ómoks Nations Thesis Committee Members o Michael Brauer UBC SPPH o Sarah Henderson BC Centre for Disease Control & UBC SPPH o Arvind Saraswat BC Ministry of Environment CARA Project Collaborators o Nina Dobbin Heath Canada o Scott Weichenthal McGill o Natalie Suzuki BC Ministry of Environment

3 Why is Woodsmoke an Issue? Woodsmoke is a combination of 300+ chemicals Fine Particulate Matter (PM 2.5 ) US EPA

4 PM 2.5 Health Impacts 3.5 million global deaths Clear respiratory and cardiovascular effects Many emerging effects Children, seniors and preexisting conditions more susceptible 1. J.S. Apte, J.D. Marshall, A.J. Cohen, M.Brauer Addressing global mortality from ambient PM 2.5 Environ. Sci. Technol., 49 (2015), pp

5 Exposure Response Relationship Between PM 2.5 and Mortality BC Annual Standard (8 μg m -3 ) Adapted from Apte et al. (2015) ES&T

6 Woodsmoke in BC Residential woodsmoke major driver of winter air quality Why? Wood burning is prevalent: Available, affordable, reliable, traditional, renewable Emissions proximity Valley communities with tendency for inversions

7 Higher temperature Lower temperature File:SmokeCeilingInLochcarron.jpg

8 BC PM 2.5 Emissions Inventory (2014)

9 Managing Woodsmoke Pollution Regulations - Sales restrictions, burn limits etc. Exchange programs (17 Active) Education

10

11 Current Monitoring in BC Air Quality Monitoring Stations in larger communities Measure criteria air pollutants including PM 2.5 Data available hourly

12 Knowledge Gaps Current monitoring network extremely useful data BUT Two knowledge gaps / limitations: 1. No routine source specific information No instruments that can help understand the sources of PM 2. Limited spatial resolution Not feasible to install & maintain stations in every community Each station is a single location within an airshed

13 Kris Y. Hong, Scott Weichenthal, Arvind Saraswat, Gavin H. King, Sarah B. Henderson, Michael Brauer, Systematic identification and prioritization of communities impacted by residential woodsmoke In Environmental Pollution, Volume 220, Part B, 2017, Pages Identifying Woodsmoke Impacted Communities No special study required Common features of smoky days identifiable Diurnal and seasonal patterns

14 Establishing Empirical Evidence for Woodsmoke Pollution Levoglucosan (the gold standard) Requires special study Fixed samplers for at least 24 hours Expensive lab analysis Simoneit et al (1999), Atmospheric Environment, 33(2)

15 Mobile Monitoring

16 Project Introduction Created a method to target the two knowledge gaps by combining: Spatial resolution -> Mobile Monitoring Source specific data -> Aethalometer Fixed instruments and levoglucosan sampling to complement and compare to MoE station instruments Tested the method in: 3 identified communities with MoE monitoring stations 3 paired nearby unmonitored communities

17 Instrument Comparison Nephelometer Measures light scattering caused by particulate in an air sample Estimation of total PM 2.5 Aethalometer Measures light absorption on a filter tape at multiple wavelengths Estimation of woodsmoke

18 Aethalometer and Woodsmoke Difference between two wavelengths known as Delta C is well correlated with woodsmoke UVC Zhang, K. M., Yang, B., Chen, G., Gu, J., Schwab, J., Felton, D., and Allen, G.: Joint Measurements of PM 2.5 and light-absorptive PM in woodsmoke-dominated ambient and plume environments, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., in review, 2017.

19 Mobile Monitoring Set-Up

20 Fixed Site Set-Up

21 19. Vernon 20. Squamish 21. Fort St. John 22. Nanaimo 23. Kamloops PM 2.5 High 1. Houston 2. Courtenay 3. Port Alberni 4. Vanderhoof 5. Whistler 6. Castlegar 7. Golden 8. Smithers 9. Campbell River 10. Victoria 11. Duncan 12. Burns Lake 13. Quesnel 14. Grand Forks 15. Prince George 16. Williams Lake 17. Kelowna 18. Trail Low

22 Monitoring Campaign Routes were pre-planned Monitored each community pair for two weeks Alternated paired routes each night to limit weather impacts Routes also driven in alternating directions

23 Data Analysis 1. Mobile data matched to GPS coordinates 2. Data normalised and converted to Z scores 3. Averaged across a raster grid and focal smoothing 4. Map production m 100 m

24 Results

25 Levoglucosan (μg/m 3 ) Community Comparison Daily Filter PM 2.5 vs Levoglucosan PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 )

26 Levoglucosan (μg/m 3 ) Daily Delta C vs Levoglucosan Identifying Woodsmoke Aethalometer vs Levoglucosan Delta C (μg/m 3 )

27 Instrument Comparison

28 Comparing Monitoring Runs CCD Night Trip 1 - Jan 25 th 2017 CCD Night Trip 2 - Jan 27 th 2017 PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 ) 37.2 PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 ) 29.2 TEMP ( C) 4.0 TEMP ( C) 5.3 WSPD (m/s) 0.36 WSPD (m/s) 0.74 Mean Z Score PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 ) Mean Z Score PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 )

29 Pemberton Whistler Whistler Station Z = 0.01 PM 2.5 = 8.8 μg/m 3 Mean Z Score PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 )

30 Comox Valley Routes Mean Z Score PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 ) * * Courtenay Station Z = 0.44 PM 2.5 = 27 μg/m 3 Mean Z Score PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 ) * * Courtenay Station Z = 1.4 PM 2.5 = 22 μg/m 3

31 Vanderhoof Mean Z Score PM 2.5 (μg/m 3 ) Vanderhoof Station Vanderhoof Station Z = PM 2.5 = 6.8 μg/m Fort Fraser Fraser Lake

32 Conclusion on Method Measures spatial patterns to complement station data Relatively quick and efficient to apply Identifies hotspots Maps can be used for targeting exchanges etc Quick option to characterize unmonitored communities High correlation between instruments Supports woodsmoke is the dominant PM 2.5 source Semi-quantitative data

33 Takeaways and Next Steps Mobile monitoring provides high resolution data to complement monitoring and target improvements Evidence shows aethalometer is highly correlated with woodsmoke and woodsmoke dominates these communities Results have been presented to communities so data can be used for local development Equipment and method will be made available to be used in other communities around the province

34 Thank You