Urban Airborne and Blood Lead Analyses Using Neural Networks
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 123, Issue 1
Abstract
A feed-forward back-propagation–type neural network was applied to airborne lead data collected around a busy highway interchange in Birmingham, England. The data were taken during the early 1970s, when lead emissions from vehicles were at their highest. The neural computation was capable of identifying realistic isopleths of lead concentrations around the interchange for summer/winter and daytime/nighttime conditions. A second neural study on blood lead levels taken from residents all over Birmingham was also undertaken. This analysis augmented the findings of the original study and highlighted the importance of age, sex, location, and age of house on residents' blood levels. It was also found that multiple linear least-squares regression analysis gave very poor results and should not be used for interpreting this type of highly nonlinear data. The neural analyses provided a relationship between airborne and blood lead concentrations, and suggested that opening the interchange had caused the blood lead levels in schoolboys, living adjacent to the highways, to increase by about 9%.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Annest, J. L., Mahaffey, K. R., Cox, D. H., and Roberts, J. (1982). “Blood lead levels for persons 6 months to 74 years of age: United States, 1976–80.”Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics 79, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Publ. (PHS) 82-150, Public Health Service, Hyattsville, Md.
2.
Caudill, M. (1990). “Neural network primer.”AI EXPERT, Miller Freeman Publications, San Francisco, Calif.
3.
Chamberlain, A. C., Heard, M. J., Little, P., Newton, D., Wells, A. C., and Wiffen, R. D. (1978). “Investigation into lead from motor vehicles.”Atomic Energy Res. Establishment, Rep. No. R9198, HMSO, London, England.
4.
Chamberlain, A. C., Heard, M. J., Little, P., and Wiffen, R. D. (1979). “The dispersion of lead from motor exhausts.”Philosophical Trans. of the Royal Soc. of London, A290, London, England, 577–589.
5.
Colwill, D. M., and Hickman, A. J. (1981). “Measurement of particulate lead on the M4 motorway at Harlington, Middlesex.”Transp. and Road Res. Lab., Rep. No. 972, Crowthorne, England.
6.
Department of the Environment. (1978). “Lead pollution in Birmingham.”Pollution Paper No. 14, HMSO, London, England.
7.
Elsom, D. M. (1992). Atmospheric pollution, 2nd Ed., Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, Mass.
8.
Grubert, J. P.(1995). “Prediction of estuarine instabilities with artificial neural networks.”J. Comp. in Civ. Engrg., ASCE, 9(4), 266–274.
9.
Huntzicker, J. J., Friedlander, S. K., and Davidson, C.(1975). “Material balance for automobile-emitted lead in Los Angeles basin.”Envir. Sci. Technol., 9, 448–457.
10.
Khandehar, R. N., Kelkiar, D. N., and Vohna, K. G.(1980). “Lead, cadmium, zinc, copper and iron in the atmosphere of Greater Bombay.”Atmos. Envir., 14(4), 457–461.
11.
Lansdown, R., Yule, W., Urbanowicz, M.-A., and Miller, I. B. (1983). Blood lead, intelligence, attainment and behaviour in school children: Overview of a pilot study. Lead Versus Health: Sources and Effects of Low Level Lead Exposure, M. Rutter and R. Russell-Jones, eds., John Wiley, Chichester, England.
12.
Lawrence, J. (1992). Introduction to neural networks and expert systems. California Scientific Software, Nevada City, Calif.
13.
Needleman, H. L., Gunnoe, C. E., Leviton, A., Reed, R., Peresie, H., Maher, C., and Barrett, P.(1979). “Deficits in psychologic and classroom performance of children with elevated lead levels.”New England J. Medicine, 300, 689–95.
14.
Rabinowitz, M., and Needleman, H. L.(1983). “Petrol lead sales and umbilical cord blood lead levels in Boston Massachusetts.”Lancet, 1, 63.
15.
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. (1983). “Lead in the environment.”Ninth Rep., Cmnd. 8852, HMSO, London, England.
16.
Sejnowski, T. J., and Rosenberg, C. R. (1986). “NETtalk: A parallel networks that learns to read aloud.”Tech. Rep. JHU/EECS-8601, John Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, Md.
17.
USEPA. (1977). Air quality criteria for lead. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
18.
Wilson, D. (1983). The lead scandal. Heinemann, London, England.
19.
Yeh, Y.-C., Kuo, Y.-H., and Hsu, D. S.(1993). “Building KBES for diagnosing PC pile with artificial neural network.”J. Comp. in Civ. Engrg., ASCE, 7(1), 71–93.
20.
Zhao, D., and Sun, B.(1986). “Air pollution and acid rain in China.”Ambio, 15(1), 2–5.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Jan 1, 1997
Published in print: Jan 1997
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.