104 Int. J. Environment and Pollution, Vol. 55, Nos. 1/2/3/4, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Children’s exposure to traffic-related pollution: assessment of CO exposure in a typical school day Joana Valente*, Jorge Humberto Amorim, Ricardo Teixeira, Cláudia Pimentel, I. Ribeiro and Carlos Borrego CESAM and Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal E-mail: joanavalente@ua.pt E-mail: amorim@ua.pt E-mail: ricardomteixeira@ua.pt E-mail: claudiapimentel@ua.pt E-mail: ilavrador@ua.pt E-mail: cborrego@ua.pt *Correspondent author Abstract: This paper evaluates the exposure of four children to carbon monoxide (CO) in two different classrooms during the time spent in school in a typical school day, using a numerical modelling approach. The study is focused on an area of 550 × 550 m 2 centred at a primary school of the city of Aveiro, in central Portugal, which is located close to a road with moderate traffic and has naturally ventilated rooms. Air quality data were measured in the school yard. Traffic emissions were estimated with TREM model, using traffic counts data. Simulations of CO concentrations in the study domain were performed with the computational fluid dynamics model VADIS, considering the influence of buildings and trees over the dispersion. Indoor concentrations were simulated using a mass transfer approach. Results show that the individual exposure of children is spatially dependent, as a consequence of the wind flow and air pollutant dispersion patterns. Keywords: CO exposure; urban pathways; microenvironment approach; CFD modelling. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Valente, J., Amorim, J.H., Teixeira, R., Pimentel, C., Ribeiro, I. and Borrego, C. (2014) ‘Children’s exposure to traffic-related pollution: assessment of CO exposure in a typical school day’, Int. J. Environment and Pollution, Vol. 55, Nos. 1/2/3/4, pp.104–112. Biographical notes: Joana Valente is a Post-Doc Researcher from the Associate Laboratory CESAM at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She obtained her PhD degree in Sciences Applied to the Environment from UA in 2011. Her main scientific activity is on environmental sciences, focusing on air quality modelling and human exposure modelling. Her topics of research: urban air quality; human comfort; human exposure to air pollution; health effects of air pollution; forest fire emissions; and wildland/urban interface fires. She has 20 publications indexed in the ISI Web of Knowledge.