8.-10. juni 2015, Rotorua, New Zealand
Best winter maintenance practices to decrease street dust
In the Nordic countries street dust causes health problems such as cough, rhinitis and eye irritation for citizens especially in the spring time.
Tarja Myller had a presentation of this subject the 9th of June under the IFME World Congress on Municipal Engineering & IPWEA International Public Works Conferenceis. She is a Maintenance engineer (Tech.) in the City of Helsinki Public Works Department Helsinki, Finland.
Abstract
In the Nordic countries street dust causes health problems such as cough, rhinitis and eye irritation for citizens especially in the spring time. For risk groups like allergic persons, dust is remarkably harmful.
The European Union has set certain limits for air quality. The daily average limit is 50 micrograms per cubic meter and can be exceeded only 35 days in a year. Air quality is measured in several stations in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The Helsinki Metropolitan Area is at the moment one of the cleanest metropolitan areas in Europe in terms of air quality.
Development projects made in the past ten years to decrease street dust levels have succeeded. In the year 2014 Redust, one of the biggest such research projects, ended and its results are shown in this presentation. In the presentation, the present process of controlling air quality, development work, results and the most useful maintenance methods are discussed.
