Spatial and Spatiotemporal Variability of Regional Background Ultrafine Particle Concentrations in the Netherlands

Studies of the health effects of ultrafine particles (UFPs) in large nationwide cohorts are currently hampered by a lack of knowledge about spatial and spatiotemporal variations in regional background UFPs. We measured the UFP (10-300 nm) at 20 regional background locations (3 × 2 weeks) across the Netherlands and a reference site continuously over a total period of 14 months in 2016-2017. We compared the overall averages for each site and used kriging to create a regional background spatial map of the Netherlands. Spatiotemporal variability was analyzed by correlating time-series of 2 and 24 h average concentrations. The overall average measured UFP concentrations at the 20 locations ranged from 3814 to 7070 particles/cm³. We found the spatial correlation in the UFP concentrations up to 180 km and clear differences between the north and the more populated southern parts of the country. The average temporal correlation between 2 and 24 h average UFP concentrations was 0.50 (IQR: 0.36-0.61) and 0.58 (IQR: 0.44-0.75), respectively. Temporal correlation declined weakly with a distance between sites, from 0.58 for sites within 80 km of each other to 0.47 for sites farther away. The substantial spatial variation in the regional background UFP concentrations suggests that regional variation may contribute importantly to exposure contrast in nationwide health studies of UFP.