Physico-chemical characterization of indoor/outdoor particulate matter in two residential houses in Oslo, Norway: measurements overview and physical properties - URBAN-AEROSOL Project

Abstract

Indoor/outdoor measurements have been performed in the Oslo metropolitan area during summer and winter periods (2002-2003) at two different residential houses. The objective of the measurement study was to characterize, physically and chemically, the particulate matter (PM) and gaseous pollutants associated with actual human exposure in the selected places, and their indoor/outdoor relationship. In this paper, we focus on the PM measurements and examine the relationship between the indoor and outdoor PM concentrations taking into account the ventilation rate, indoor sources and meteorological conditions. The indoor/outdoor measurements indicate the important contribution of the outdoor air to the indoor air quality and the influence of specific indoor sources such as smoking and cooking to the concentration of PM inside houses. However, no specific correlation was found between the indoor/outdoor concentration ratio and the meteorological parameters. This study provides information on the physical characteristics and the relationship of indoor to outdoor concentration of particulate matter in residential houses. Moreover, the parameters that influence this relationship are discussed. The results presented here are specific to the sampled houses and conditions used and provide data on the actual human exposure characteristics which occur in the spatial and temporal scales of the present study.

Characterization of Chemical and Microbial Species from Size-Segregated Indoor and Outdoor Particulate Samples

“…The average outdoor particle concentrations during different seasons were from 8 to 15 μg/m 3 for PM 10 and 4 to 10 μg/m 3 for PM 2.5 (Table 2). They mainly correspond to relatively good air quality and are similar to those observed in earlier studies in clean rural and suburban areas as well as in Kuopio (Monn et al, 1997;Jones et al, 2000;Sillanpää et al, 2003;Lazaridis et al, 2006;Portin et al, 2012) and are generally lower than those observed in European urban environments (Gotschi et al, 2002;Komarnicki, 2005;Pennanen et al, 2007;Diapouli et al, 2011). The highest concentrations were observed during the summer campaign when the air quality was affected by wildfires burning in Russia (Portin et al, 2012).…”

“…These correspond to 76-122% of the outdoor concentrations and are generally among the lowest concentrations usually observed in indoor air studies (Monn et al, 1997;Gotschi et al, 2002;Lazaridis et al, 2006;Chen and Hildemann, 2009) which are a result of low outdoor concentrations but also indicate the relatively small impact from indoor sources. In addition, the filtration of the house intake air may decrease the contribution of coarse particles from outdoor aerosols when compared to naturally ventilated buildings.…”

An Exposure-Mortality Relationship for Residential Indoor PM2.5 Exposure from Outdoor Sources

“…Moreover, there are measurements in the literature to provide a reasonable basis for estimating the ratio, at least for some types of dwellings. In the absence of significant indoor sources, indoor and outdoor PM 2.5 levels are generally observed to track each other fairly closely over time with indoor concentrations lower than outdoors [44,45]. Relatively few studies have attempted to quantify explicitly the contribution of ambient PM 2.5 to indoor concentrations [46].…”

Differential oxidative stress response in young children and the elderly following exposure to PM2.5

“…Sources of indoor ambient particles are not only from outdoor contributions, but also from indoor sources such as smoking, cooking, combustion, indoor resuspension of dusts by human activities, and transformation processes [43,44]. To reduce errors in the measurement and bias of the exposureeffect relationship, we repeatedly measured personal exposure instead of using outdoor or indoor area monitoring data as an exposure estimate.…”