Risk evaluation of driver exposure to exhaust fumes inside the passenger car cabin in urban traffic conditions

Nowadays, with the current dynamic development of the automotive industry, we spend more and more time indoors, including in vehicles. The air used for ventilation of the vehicle's cabin comes from the outside. Pollution enters into the vehicle. This research presents the results of tests conducted to assess the exposure of the driver and passengers to volatile organic compounds entering the vehicle with atmospheric air. The simulation researches were conducted on a chassis dynamometer at the Department of Vehicle Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Technical University of Wroclaw and the tests under real conditions, i.e. traffic urban conditions, were taken as well. The measurements were conducted in the centre of Wroclaw during peak hours, when the traffic jam is the most frequent. The measurements were taken in order to organic compounds analysis, which includes gas chromatography. The analysis results were averaged from three measurements to get these studies more reliable. Results show that during mobile tests the vehicle was exposed to much more pollution than in the stationary tests in the simulated conditions of traffic congestion. Therefore, the studies present that the pollution in the traffic congestion is the real danger to drivers.