The association between greenness and traffic-related air pollution at schools.

Greenness has been reported to improve mental and physical health. Reduction in exposure to air pollution has been suggested to underlie the health benefits of greenness; however, the available evidence on the mitigating effect of greenness on air pollution remains limited and inconsistent. We investigated the association between greenness within and surrounding school boundaries and monitored indoor and outdoor levels of traffic-related air pollutants (TRAPs) including NO2, ultrafine particles, black carbon, and traffic-related PM2.5 at 39 schools across Barcelona, Spain, in 2012. TRAP levels at schools were measured twice during two one-week campaigns separated by 6months. Greenness within and surrounding school boundaries was measured as the average of satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) within boundaries of school and a 50m buffer around the school, respectively. Mixed effects models were used to quantify the associations between school greenness and TRAP levels, adjusted for relevant covariates. Higher greenness within and surrounding school boundaries was consistently associated with lower indoor and outdoor TRAP levels. Reduction in indoor TRAP levels was partly mediated by the reduction in outdoor TRAP levels. We also observed some suggestions for stronger associations between school surrounding greenness and outdoor TRAP levels for schools with higher number of trees around them. Our observed reduction of TRAP levels at schools associated with school greenness can be of public importance, considering the burden of health effects of exposure to TRAPs in schoolchildren.

[1]  X. Basagaña,et al.  Inequality, green spaces, and pregnant women: roles of ethnicity and individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic status. , 2014, Environment international.

[2]  Bert Brunekreef,et al.  Development of Land Use Regression models for PM(2.5), PM(2.5) absorbance, PM(10) and PM(coarse) in 20 European study areas; results of the ESCAPE project. , 2012, Environmental science & technology.

[3]  B. Givoni.  Impact of planted areas on urban environmental quality: A review , 1991 .

[4]  Elena Paoletti,et al.  Air quality impact of an urban park over time , 2011 .

[5]  X. Basagaña,et al.  Surrounding Greenness and Exposure to Air Pollution During Pregnancy: An Analysis of Personal Monitoring Data , 2012, Environmental health perspectives.

[6]  Riccardo Buccolieri,et al.  Aerodynamic effects of trees on pollutant concentration in street canyons. , 2009, The Science of the total environment.

[7]  R. Maheswaran,et al.  The health benefits of urban green spaces: a review of the evidence. , 2011, Journal of public health.

[8]  X. Basagaña,et al.  Surrounding Greenness and Pregnancy Outcomes in Four Spanish Birth Cohorts , 2012, Environmental health perspectives.

[9]  J. C. Stevens,et al.  Air pollution removal by urban trees and shrubs in the United States , 2006 .

[10]  Payam Dadvand,et al.  Green and Blue Spaces and Behavioral Development in Barcelona Schoolchildren: The BREATHE Project , 2014, Environmental health perspectives.

[11]  Bert Brunekreef,et al.  Development of NO2 and NOx land use regression models for estimating air pollution exposure in 36 study areas in Europe - The ESCAPE project , 2013 .

[12]  Heinz Burtscher,et al.  Design, Calibration, and Field Performance of a Miniature Diffusion Size Classifier , 2011 .

[13]  Vlad Isakov,et al.  Field investigation of roadside vegetative and structural barrier impact on near-road ultrafine particle concentrations under a variety of wind conditions. , 2012, The Science of the total environment.

[14]  Shunqin Wang,et al.  Association of Traffic-Related Air Pollution with Children’s Neurobehavioral Functions in Quanzhou, China , 2009, Environmental health perspectives.

[15]  M. Jerrett,et al.  A distance-decay variable selection strategy for land use regression modeling of ambient air pollution exposures. , 2009, The Science of the total environment.

[16]  M. Petters,et al.  A review of the anthropogenic influence on biogenic secondary organic aerosol , 2011 .

[17]  Kiros Berhane,et al.  Childhood Incident Asthma and Traffic-Related Air Pollution at Home and School , 2010, Environmental health perspectives.

[18]  F. Dominici,et al.  Linking Student Performance in Massachusetts Elementary Schools with the “Greenness” of School Surroundings Using Remote Sensing , 2014, PloS one.

[19]  A. Pullin,et al.  A systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments , 2010, BMC public health.

[20]  J. Kesselmeier,et al.  Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC): An Overview on Emission, Physiology and Ecology , 1999 .

[21]  J. Sunyer,et al.  Child exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollutants in schools in Barcelona, Spain. , 2014, Environment international.

[22]  H. Akbari.  Shade trees reduce building energy use and CO2 emissions from power plants. , 2002, Environmental pollution.

[23]  J. Sunyer,et al.  Sources of indoor and outdoor PM2.5 concentrations in primary schools. , 2014, The Science of the total environment.

[24]  J. Sunyer,et al.  Outdoor and indoor UFP in primary schools across Barcelona. , 2014, The Science of the total environment.