The Ambient and Personal Exposure to PM2.5

Concentrations and Chemical Composition

Jordan Society fro Sustainable Development (JSSD) always seeks to participant in improvement of environmental quality and helps the society in building capacity in different aspects of sustainable development. For that JSSD is collaborating with Royal Scientific Society, (RSS) a Jordanian NGO conducting ambient air monitoring (PM_2.5) at major urban areas of Jordan 

The association between ambient fine particles (PM_2.5) concentration and a wide variety of cardiopulmonary health outcomes including premature mortality and lung cancer has been documented in numerous studies.

To date, no studies have been conducted in the Middle East to examine real-time exposure to fine particles (PM_2.5) and their impact on the public health and environmental safety while most of studies examining air pollution exposure have been concentrated in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Jordan Society for Sustainable Development (JSSD) has designated a project to conduct ambient air monitoring at the level of PM_2.5 at the major urbanized cities in Jordan.

The Aim of study and the Specific Objectives:

The aim of the study is to measure the outdoor and indoor personal exposures to fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) at locations spanning a wide range of urban development in Jordan.

The study further aims to identify sources of these particles and to provide scientific information about ambient fine particulate matter so that issue of air quality can be addressed by political decision makers at the national level

Specific Objectives:

1. To conduct monitoring of ambient PM_2.5.

2. To characterize the chemical composition of ambient PM_2.5 and identify sources;

3. To characterize continuous personal exposures to PM_2.5 for cohorts living in urban and rural populations;

4. To examine the associations between ambient PM2.5 from various sources and personal exposure;

5. To estimate potential health risks to sensitive populations in each of the sampling environments.

 Benefits & Advantage

This study is innovative in the field of ambient air monitoring because its initiates new research approach, build local capacity in sensitive trace analysis and allocate adequate equipments to conduct similar studies that will contribute to the improvement  of  environmental quality in the future.