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Abstract
A traffic-related exposure study was conducted among 58 workers (drivers, vendors, traffic police, and gas station attendants) and 10 office workers as controls in Trujillo, Peru in July 2002. PM2.5 was collected using SKC pumps. Carbon monoxide (CO) was measured by Draeger Pac III chemical sensors and Draeger tubes. Volatile organic compounds were sampled using Tenax-packed diffusion tubes and analyzed by a gas chromatograph coupled with mass spectrometer. Newspaper vendors had the highest CO exposure (MeanSD: 11.48.9 ppm) measured by diffusion tubes, office workers being the lowest group (2.01.7 ppm). Bus drivers (1618.9 g/m3) had the highest PM2.5 exposure while gas station attendants (6426.5 g/m3) and office workers (658.5 g/m3) were the lowest. Benzene/toluene/ethylbenzene/xylene exposures (BTEX) among gas station attendants (111/254/43/214 g/m3) were much higher than those among combi and taxi drivers. The exposures investigated were of occupational health concern.