Researchers at the University of Toronto found that "badly tuned" cars are responsible for most of the air pollution.
But in a paper published in the recent edition of the journal Atmospheric Pollution Research, U of T chemical engineer Greg Evans (ChemE) and his partners at Environment Canada have found that concentrations of pollutants from traffic are still double at a distance of 280 metres downwind from highway 400 north of Toronto. …
"We used to think that living near a major road meant that you lived near a lot of air pollution," says Evans. "But what we're finding is that it's not that simple, someone living right on a major road in the suburbs may not be exposed to as much pollution as someone living downtown on a side street near many major roads."
In the same study, Evans demonstrated that for somebody living near multiple roads, they could be exposed to up to ten times more pollutants than if they didn't live near any major roads.
"It used to be that we measured air quality on a regional or city scale," says Evans. "But now we're starting to understand that we need to measure air quality on a more micro scale, especially around major roadways."
According to Health Canada, poor air quality from traffic pollution is associated with a number of health issues, such as asthma in children and other respiratory diseases, heart disease, cancer and increased rates of premature death in adults. The Canadian Medical Association attributes 21,000 premature deaths each year in Canada to air pollution. A separate study published last month also linked traffic pollution to delayed cognitive development in children.
