Concentrations of indoor submicrometer and supermicrometer particulate matter in a primary school in Prague
Abstrakt
Children are a susceptible group to environment pollution. The environment, in which they spend the most time, is the home; the second is the school [1].
Therefore, the indoor environment of a school affects their health, wellbeing and even school results [2]. One of the key pollutants of the indoor air is particulate matter (PM), when fine fractions of PM are considered to be more dangerous for the human health than the course one.
Children exposure to PM is higher in weekdays because of school attending [3]. PM presented in schools has both indoor and outdoor origin.
Indoor originated particles are mostly coarse and they are produced by resuspension. Majority of PM coming from outdoors arise from combustion processes (e.g. traffic) and they contain a number of hazardous substances.
These particles generally constitute a majority of submicrometer particles (aerodynamic diameter less than 1 micron) in classrooms [4]. However, there are some evidences, that submicrometer particles are produces by children and activity they perform [5].
There is a lack of knowledge of children exposure to submicrometer particles during their time in the school. The present work investigated concentrations of air pollutant, aerosol particles, in the specialized classrooms (computer lab, arts and biology/chemistry) in an elementary school, Prague.
Direct reading instruments measuring mass concentration of four aerosol fractions and number concentration of submicrometer particles were used. Measurements were carried out for four weekdays in each month from November 2011 to July 2012.
It was found that mass concentrations of submicrometer particles were dependent on outdoor concentrations as well as school operations, in contrast to supermicrometer particles which were affected mainly by physical activities of students.