10.06.2026 - Seminars
Tracing PM2.5: monitoring, health burden, and source apportionment
Ting Zhang, George Mason University
10/06/2026 ore 11:00
CNR-ISAC, Bologna – meeting room online
Abstract
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) poses a global environmental challenge, yet inequalities persist in both exposure levels and related health burden. This seminar presents cross-national research integrating personal exposure measurement, environmental health assessment, and fine-scale source apportionment, addressing how much people breathe, how harmful pollutants are, and where they originate. We developed a calibration method to adjust the shift in real-time PM2.5 measurements; with the refined data, we revealed the varied personal exposures in different micro-environments during hazy and non-hazy days in China. For health implications, epidemiological analyses showed that underestimations of air pollution-related health burden estimates were sensitive to index selection; meanwhile, health burdens were spatially heterogeneous, with geographic and socio-economic factors partially driving the disparities. In the United States, we applied dispersion-normalized positive matrix factorization at over 300 sites nationwide, alongside a chemical transport model across the contiguous U.S., to track source categories’ contributions to ambient PM2.5. Model outputs were integrated into a machine learning framework to predict daily source-specific PM2.5 from 2011-2020 and assess exposure inequalities across population groups. We found the Black population experienced higher exposure relative to the total population for secondary nitrate, traffic exhaust, and biomass burning/secondary organic aerosol. Together, the findings argue that reducing air pollution’s health burden requires not just cleaner air, but also targeted source-specific and spatially informed policy.
Bio
Ting Zhang is an air pollution researcher with training and research experience across China and the United States, and currently based at George Mason University. Her research connects the air people breathe to the health burden they carry, and to the sources responsible. Drawing on air pollution science, exposure assessment, and environmental epidemiology, she is committed to advancing solutions that provide cleaner and healthier air for vulnerable populations worldwide.