Lung cancer risk assessment due to traffic-generated particles exposure in urban street canyons: A numerical modelling approach

Combustion-generated nanoparticles are responsible for negative health effects due to their ability to penetrate in the lungs, carrying toxic compounds with them. In urban areas, the coexistence of nanoparticle sources and particular street-building configurations can lead to very high particle exposure levels. In the present paper, an innovative approach for the evaluation of lung cancer incidence in street canyon due to exposure to traffic-generated particles was proposed. To this end, the literature-available values of particulate matter, PAHs and heavy metals emitted from different kind of vehicles were used to calculate the Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) at the tailpipe. The estimated ELCR was then used as input data in a numerical CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model that solves the mass, momentum, turbulence and species transport equations, in order to evaluate the cancer risk in every point of interest inside the street canyon. Thus, the influence of wind speed and street canyon geometry (H/W, height of building, H and width of the street, W) on the ELCR at street level was evaluated by means of a CFD simulation. It was found that the ELCR calculated on the leeward and windward sides of the street canyon at a breathable height of 1.5 m, for people exposed 15 min per day for 20 years, is equal to 1.5 × 10−5 and 4.8 × 10−6, respectively, for wind speed of 1 m/s and H/W equal to 1. The ELCR at street level results higher on the leeward side for aspect ratios equal to 1 and 3, while for aspect ratio equal to 2 it is higher on the windward side. In addition, the simulations showed that with the increasing of wind speed the ELCR becomes lower everywhere in the street canyon, due to the increased in dispersion.