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Primary Submission Category: Environmental factors

THRIVEair Philly: Results from a Community-Based Participatory Air Monitoring Study

Authors:  Lisa Frueh, Sheila Tripathy, Karlin Moore, Grace Tiegs, KC Wahl, Leah Johnston,

Presenting Author: Lisa Frueh*

Low-income, majority-Black neighborhoods in South/Southwest Philadelphia face disproportionate air pollution from clustered sources (industrial facilities, ports, interstate highways, international airport). The community is specifically concerned about fugitive emissions of benzene and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from a decommissioning oil refinery which closed after a major explosion in 2019. We partnered with Philly Thrive, a local environmental justice organization, to co-design a one-year air monitoring study using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods.

 

Following a co-design process, we selected nine sites surrounding the former refinery for weekly monitoring, and 11 sites of community concern (e.g., parks, schools) monitored for four weeks over the study period (June ‘23 – June ‘24). Results were communicated to the community through fact sheets and events. Here, we describe results from source apportionment analyses of VOCs.

 

Concentrations for all monitored VOCs were generally low throughout the year. We used Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to identify potential sources, after accounting for temporal autocorrelation and unbalanced observations per site. Results suggest three components: (1) urban mix of benzene derivatives and shorter chain (C6-C9) alkanes (which explained 67% of variance in our data); (2) longer-chain (C10-C12) alkanes, suggesting diesel emissions, at sites near highways; (3) chlorinated compounds (tetrachloroethylene, trifluoromonofluoromethane), higher near the waste transfer station, suggesting industrial solvents or emissions from this site.

 

Through our CBPR process, we identified benzene and its derivatives as key pollutants of concern to the community. VOC concentrations were generally low, including benzene. However, PCA results suggest key sources of VOCs in the community besides the former refinery site (i.e., waste transfer site, highways).