A route to school informational intervention for air pollution exposure reduction. (February 2020)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- A route to school informational intervention for air pollution exposure reduction. (February 2020)
- Main Title:
- A route to school informational intervention for air pollution exposure reduction
- Authors:
- Ahmed, Shiraz
Adnan, Muhammad
Janssens, Davy
Wets, Geert - Abstract:
- Highlights: Children's current route to school pollutant exposure is estimated along with availability of lesser polluted routes in the vicinity. Informational Intervention is designed and implemented to exploit the availability of lesser polluted routes. The intervention was found effective as a significant proportion of study participants have adopted suggested green routes. Abstract: Walking and cycling are promoted to encourage sustainable travel behavior among children and adults. School children during their travel episode to-and-from school are disproportionately exposed to air pollution due to multiple reasons such as proximity to high traffic roads and peak volumes. Regular use of less polluted routes to and from school can bring significant health benefits for school children. This paper presents a route to school informational intervention that was developed incorporating approaches and methods suggested in the literature for effective behavioral interventions. The intervention was implemented using escorting parents/guardians (N = 104) of school children of Antwerp, Belgium to adopt school routes with least exposure to pollutants. Collected data and its analysis revealed that 60 % participants (N = 62) could benefit themselves by adopting the suggested cleanest routes to school, of whom a significant proportion of participants (i.e. 34 %, N = 35) have a difference of average NO2 concentration between the alternative and current route of around 10 μg/m3. ThisHighlights: Children's current route to school pollutant exposure is estimated along with availability of lesser polluted routes in the vicinity. Informational Intervention is designed and implemented to exploit the availability of lesser polluted routes. The intervention was found effective as a significant proportion of study participants have adopted suggested green routes. Abstract: Walking and cycling are promoted to encourage sustainable travel behavior among children and adults. School children during their travel episode to-and-from school are disproportionately exposed to air pollution due to multiple reasons such as proximity to high traffic roads and peak volumes. Regular use of less polluted routes to and from school can bring significant health benefits for school children. This paper presents a route to school informational intervention that was developed incorporating approaches and methods suggested in the literature for effective behavioral interventions. The intervention was implemented using escorting parents/guardians (N = 104) of school children of Antwerp, Belgium to adopt school routes with least exposure to pollutants. Collected data and its analysis revealed that 60 % participants (N = 62) could benefit themselves by adopting the suggested cleanest routes to school, of whom a significant proportion of participants (i.e. 34 %, N = 35) have a difference of average NO2 concentration between the alternative and current route of around 10 μg/m3. This information about alternatives routes with their potential benefits was presented to each participant via defined study protocols. Based on the feedback of participants that could potentially adopt suggested alternatives, 77 % (N = 48) have switched their routes. These results indicated that intervention was effective, and it can bring higher benefits when implemented on a wider scale. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Sustainable cities and society. Volume 53(2020)
- Journal:
- Sustainable cities and society
- Issue:
- Volume 53(2020)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 53, Issue 2020 (2020)
- Year:
- 2020
- Volume:
- 53
- Issue:
- 2020
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2020-0053-2020-0000
- Page Start:
- Page End:
- Publication Date:
- 2020-02
- Subjects:
- Children -- Routes to and from school -- Traffic -- Exposure -- Air quality -- Informational intervention
Sustainable urban development -- Periodicals
Sustainable buildings -- Periodicals
Urban ecology (Sociology) -- Periodicals
307.76 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22106707/ ↗
http://www.sciencedirect.com/ ↗
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/sustainable-cities-and-society ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.scs.2019.101965 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 2210-6707
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 17268.xml