Abstract: Population exposure to pollutants is important for studies on the exposure-response relationship. However, it is difficult to evaluate population exposure to non-conventional pollutants due to limited data on concentration levels and the movement patterns of inhabitants. In this study, an air dispersion model was used to simulate N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) concentrations, as a proxy to monitoring concentrations. A total of 1289 randomly selected household representatives were surveyed to obtain information on movement characteristics. Subsequently, population movement patterns were combined with DMF concentration levels on maps of 100 m×100 m resolution to calculate population exposure. During 2008, the estimated population exposure to DMF ranged from 0.002 to 0.64 mg/m³. The highest level of population exposure to DMF was found in the north and northwest sub-districts of the study area, ranging from 0.42 to 0.64 mg/m³. The population exposure to DMF for different occupational groups indicated that retired people and farmers were vulnerable subpopulations among people highly exposed to DMF. This was mainly because they spent most time at home where the DMF concentration was high. As pollutant concentrations were divided into small grids, we found that exposure levels were substantially impacted by population movement characteristics.

Key words: Volatile organic compound, Dispersion model, Concentration distribution, Movement characteristics, Longwan

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