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Vehicle occupant exposure to air pollutants has been a subject of concern in recent years because of higher levels of air pollutants inside gasoline or diesel-using vehicle, comparing to the surrounding atmosphere. Contrary to previous studies, fuel of vehicles operated in this study was liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). This study examined the potential exposure and removal efficiency of selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and respirable suspended particle (RSP) by commercial air cleaning device inside vehicle under different ventilation conditions. Vehicle concentrations inside of benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene, NO₂ and RSP were lower under the low ventilation condition. This was indicated that outdoor air pollutants could affect the vehicle air quality inside in case metropolitan cities such as Daegu. The urban vehicle concentrations inside of benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene, NO₂ and RSP with air cleaning device were higher than those without air cleaning device. This means that the use of air cleaning device equipped with activated carbon filter, which was used in this study, in the interior of vehicles could be expected to reduce the vehicle occupants exposure to air pollutants effectively. In batch type reactor of laboratory scale, removal efficiencies of air cleaning device used were 97.0%, 95.7%, 94.6% and 85.5% respectively in benzene, toluene, m,p-xylene and NO₂.
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