Source apportionment of indoor PM10 in Elderly Care Centre

Abstract

Source contribution to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) has been exhaustively modelled. However, people spend most of their time indoors where this approach is less explored. This evidence worsens considering elders living in Elderly Care Centres, since they are more susceptible. The present study aims to investigate the PM composition and sources influencing elderly exposure. Two 2-week sampling campaigns were conducted-one during early fall (warm phase) and another throughout the winter (cold phase). PM10 were collected with two TCR-Tecora(®) samplers that were located in an Elderly Care Centre living room and in the correspondent outdoor. Chemical analysis of the particles was performed by neutron activation analysis for element characterization, by ion chromatography for the determination of water soluble ions and by a thermal optical technique for the measurement of organic and elemental carbon. Statistical analysis showed that there were no statistical differences between seasons and environments. The sum of the indoor PM10 components measured in this work explained 57 and 53 % of the total PM10 mass measured by gravimetry in warm and cold campaigns, respectively. Outdoor PM10 concentrations were significantly higher during the day than night (p value < 0.05), as well as Ca(2+), Fe, Sb and Zn. The contribution of indoor and outdoor sources was assessed by principal component analysis and showed the importance of the highways and the airport located less than 500 m from the Elderly Care Centre for both indoor and outdoor air quality.

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

“…Except in SG2, the levels of PM 10 and PM 2.5 in the rooms were higher than outside, which meant there might be a major PM source in the hotel room microenvironment. 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].…”

Multi-city comparative PM2.5 source apportionment for fifteen sites in Europe: The ICARUS project

“…The comprised the 42-70% of PM mass while OC share was between 3% and 40%. This source is usually characterized by constant composition revealing mainly regional origin (Almeida-Silva et al, 2016;Viana et al, 2008). Particularly, it is typically associated with long-range transport events, as it is considered as an ingredient of aged air masses, because the oxidation of SO 2 to SO 4 2− is slow and thus this aerosol component is more related to transported rather than local pollution (Manousakas et al, 2017).…”

Impact of Meteorological Factors on PM2.5 in Chennai

“…[16][17][18][19][20] From the results, a strong seasonality is observed in the meteorological factors that change the atmospheric particulate matter concentration.…”