Exposure of the Driver Staying Inside the Car Cabin to Volatile Organic Compounds

Abstract

Nowadays the motorization is one of the basic branch of industry. Dynamic development of the – transportation sector has very positive impact on the social and civilization benefits, but on the other side, it generates also a lot of problems, especially related to the people health and life. The road transport is one of the main air pollution source, particularly in the cities. Furthermore, the motorization development caused increased in residence time inside vehicles. In the cities the traffic intensity is significantly higher than in the rural areas. This is the reason why road congestions are created. Exhausts, including hazardous volatile organic compounds, can easily penetrate into the cabin in the road congestion situation and they are the serious danger to the drivers and passengers. In the new cars, additional sources of volatile organic compounds are elements of the cabin interior. In this paper the results of the research on volatile organic compounds concentration inside passenger car in simulated conditions were presented. Additionally, the main sources of volatile organic compounds inside the car cabin were identify and the evaluation of driver exposure was defined.