What drives air pollution at Brisbane schools?

Exposure to air pollution at schools, where children spend a sizable fraction of the schooling day, is a significant concern worldwide. To quantify the pollution levels outside and inside the schools, the factors affecting them and the impacts on children’s health, a large interdisciplinary project, titled “Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions and Children’s Health (UPTECH)”1, was conducted. The specific focus of the project was on ultrafine particles, measured as particle number concentration (PNC), and the hypothesis was that urban traffic is the main contributor to PNC at the schools. This paper summarises the overall conclusions of only the outdoor component of the study, addressing the question of the drivers of outdoor air pollution around schools, and the recommendations for mitigating it..