Indoor airborne particle sources and semi-volatile partitioning effect of outdoor fine PM in offices

Abstract

To date, few studies have focused on PM air quality in offices, despite the fact that a lot of people spend\ud many working hours a day in such offices. The aim of the present study is to investigate PM1 and PM2.5\ud in offices in Milan (Northern Italy) and in the air outside those offices. The PM samples were analyzed to\ud determine the entity of certain compounds with possible direct or indirect adverse effects on human\ud health: PAHs, BpA, and water soluble inorganic ions.\ud A good correlation between outdoor and indoor PM mass concentrations emerged (R2 w0.87). The\ud maximum I/O concentration ratiowas 0.92, suggesting that the indoor PM levelwas always lower than the\ud outdoor level. The average infiltration factor, FINF,was 0.55, showing that about a half of the outdoor PMhad\ud come indoors. The indoor-generated particles, Cig, had values ranging from 0 to 4.4 mg m3 (<25% of the\ud indoor PM), showing that PM indoor sources had only made a limited contribution to total indoor PM.\ud The results of the indoor-to-outdoor comparisons for the aforementioned chemical compounds\ud demonstrate that the offices were characterized by the absence of effective indoor sources of particulatebound\ud PAHs and inorganic ions, whereas Cig was around 58% of the indoor concentration for BpA. Our\ud analysis of the FINF data pointed to the presence of a volatilization effect from PM for semi-volatile\ud compounds like ammonium nitrate and 4- or 5-ring PAHs, which affected the measurement of their\ud FINF. We propose the introduction of a new and simple parameter, called volatilization correction, to take\ud account of this effect

Exposure to Particle Matters and Hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds in Selected Hot Spring Hotels in Guangdong, China

“…Compared with previous results (Table 2), the mean levels of indoor PM 10 (0.135 mg¨m´3) in spring hotels was higher than that in schoolrooms, residential rooms, office buildings, care centers and station waiting rooms [4,9,[26][27][28]. The PM 2.5 mean concentrations (0.121 mg¨m´3) in spring hotels were higher than in residential rooms, station waiting rooms, offices, supermarkets and classrooms, but lower than commercial offices [4,10,27,29,30]. Mean concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 outside spring hotels were lower than those reported in urban area of the PRD like Hong Kong and Guangzhou because they were in rural areas and there was a low density of human activities nearby [18,19].…”

Indoor/Outdoor Relationships between PM10 and Associated Organic Compounds in a Primary School

“…As far as we know, the organic speciation of airborne particles in schoolrooms has only been done by Pegas et al (2012a). The analysis of organic compounds in indoor environments besides schools (residences, offices or commercial spaces) was the target of a few studies (Naumova et al, 2002;Ohura et al, 2004;Johannesson et al, 2009;Jung et al, 2010;Khedidji et al, 2013;Sangiorgi et al, 2013), but these have focused on the quantification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), due to their carcinogenic potential. The large number of compounds likely present, the very time-consuming and expensive analyses, the complex formation mechanisms and the uncertain role of organic particulates in climate (Calvo et al, 2013), have centred the attention almost exclusively on the outdoor air.…”

PM2.5-Bound PAHs in Indoor and Outdoor of Hotels in Urban and Suburban of Jinan, China: Concentrations, Sources, and Health Risk Impacts

“…Generally, the majority of them reside in hotels. However, previous studies of PAHs in indoor air have mainly been conducted in office, residential, and school buildings (Sangiorgi et al, 2013;Romagnoli et al, 2014;Hassanvand et al, 2015;Zhu et al, 2015). And few studies have been conducted in hotels.…”