Douglas Booker
PhD studentResearch Overview
Environmental Justice research on air pollution has traditionally focused on demonstrating the extent to which air pollution is equally—or unequally—distributed across particular defined social groups. A socioeconomic group of particular importance are children, as they are especially susceptible to air pollution. More than just exhibiting negative health consequences, exposure to air pollution has also been associated with poor academic performance.
Research has largely focused on outdoor air pollution, however, the conclusions drawn have a methodological myopia: the research assumes that outdoor air pollution is an accurate indicator of personal exposure. Yet, on average, people spend more than 90% of their time indoors, where levels can be 2-5 times more polluted than outdoors. The combination of both the length of time spent inside, and the potential for higher concentrations means that personal exposure is greater indoors rather than outdoors. Therefore, the current exposure-based assessments are not reflecting “real-world” patterns of exposure.
Schools are perhaps the most investigated indoor environment, however, this does not take into account all of the relevant indoor environments. An indoor environment of particular concern is school buses, where around one hour of this indoor exposure is spent per day. This is referred to as Vehicle Interior Air Quality (VIAQ). This exposure is important to understand given the immediate proximity to significant pollutant sources (other vehicles), plus, in urban areas, high outdoor concentrations compared to other micro-environments. This combination of vulnerable population (children), plus environments of high exposure (at school and in-vehicle) represents a double jeopardy that requires more investigation. However, to understand indoor air quality one must rely on the principle that the indoor atmosphere is an extension of the outdoor atmosphere: to understand environmental justice, one must have a holistic understanding of air pollution, indoors and outdoors.
The aim of the research is to develop new understandings of patterns of exposure to poor air quality for school children. This will involve simultaneously monitoring multiple pollutants inside and outside a range of different places and indoor environments (schools and school buses) and with a fine temporal resolution. This will permit a holistic and more complex understanding of patterns of exposure for school children to be developed, including in terms of its implications for vulnerability and distributive justice.
Current Teaching
I deliver the LEC 101 lecture on environmental justice and air quality.
This lecture examines who, in social and geographical terms, lives with the consequences of air pollution. Is bad air quality distributed equally according to differences in income, ethnicity, or age? Or does pollution follow some in society more than others?
UK-Guangdong urban innovation challenge - Intra-urban air pollution exposure prediction: a smart platform and applications using a land-use regression model
01/09/2018 → 31/08/2020
Research
Indoor Particulate Matter and Personal Mitigation in Guangzhou, China
01/08/2017 → 01/08/2021
Research
Improving Air Quality, Energy Efficiency, Well-Being and Productivity in Private and Public Buildings
01/02/2017 → 01/03/2020
Research
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Practical Aerosol Science 2018
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Cambridge Particle Meeting 2018
Participation in conference
Integrated air quality monitoring technology for high-volume, low-cost measurements of indoor air quality
Oral presentation
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Healthy Homes and Buildings
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
46th Intelligent Sensing Program – Sensing the Air Quality and Emissions
Invited talk
IGAC Africa Science Activity: Scoping Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Better Homes, Better Air, Better Health
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Routes to Clean Air 2016
Invited talk
- Critical Geographies