2. ENVIRONMENTAL ChEMISTRy & TEChNOLOGy 2.1. Lectures

Chem. Listy, 102, s265–s1311 (2008) Environmental Chemistry & Technology
P14 INDOOR AEROSOL ExAMINING
ADRIAnA EŠTOKOVá, nADEŽDA ŠTEVULOVá and
LEnKA KUBInCOVá
Technical University of Košice, Civil Engineering Faculty,
Institute of Building and Environmental Engineering, Vysokoškolská
4, 042 00 Košice, Slovak Republic,
Adriana.Estokova@tuke.sk
Introduction
Aerosol particles are generally considered to be one of
the principal indoor risk factors. Operation, number and behavior
of occupancy i.e. type, emission intensity and amount of
indoor contamination sources (building materials, combustion
processes, smoking, cleaning) 1,2 determine temporal and
spatial variations of indoor aerosol distribution. The particulate
matter (PM) cause the negative health effect, when they
are inhaled and deposited in the respiratory tract 3 .
This paper is primarily concerned with suspended PM 10
concentrations and indoor settled PM monitoring with regard
to the chemical composition and shape of PM 10 particles.
Experimental
M e t h o d s
Suspended particulate matter investigation was focused
on thoracic fraction PM 10 monitoring in various types
of residential and non-residential buildings. Measurement
includes integral particles sampling onto a collection material
(membrane filter Synpor 0,8 µm pore size, 35 mm in diameter)
by sampling equipment VPS 2000 (Envitech, Trenčín) at
air flow of 960 dm 3 h –1 during sampling period of approximately
24 hours. The sampling was carried out in the middle
of the room at the height of 1,500 mm from the floor. The
windows and the door were closed during the monitoring
period. The particulate mass concentrations were determined
by gravimetric method from the increase of filter weight.
Because of minimisation of humidity interference, the filters
were dried at 105 °C for 8 h before and after sampling and
than were equilibrated at a constant temperature and humidity
(e.g. 20 °C and 50 % RH) for 24 h before and after sampling.
The monitoring of indoor settled PM was performed
in selected flat building. Sampling was carried out by passive
methods based on PM settling into Petri dishes during
28 days. The particle surface concentrations were determined
by gravimetric method.
The PM 10 samples were characterized by scanning
electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/
EDX) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) as the main
techniques. Particle morphology was determined by SEM on
the equipment Tesla BS 340. The elemental EDX analysis
were carried out on the micro-analytical system LInK ISIS
300 (Oxford Instruments) operating in secondary mode at a
potential 25 kV and at extension 600–30,000. The chemical
analysis of the selected metals samples content was realised
by SpectrAA-30 (Varian).
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Results
The results of indoor PM 10 monitoring in different types
of residential and non-residential buildings are illustrated as
average mass concentrations in the Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. The average mass concentrations of PM10 in residential
(A) and non-residential (b) buildings: A1 – single family residences,
A2 – flat-residences, B1 – school buildings; B2 – offices;
b3 – commercial buildings; b4 – buildings for culture and ntertainment,
b5 – hospitals and sanitary facilities
The highest mass PM 10 concentration was observed in
non-residential public buildings. The PM 10 hygienic limit for
indoor air in Slovak republic – 50 µg m –3 was exceeded in all
monitored types of residential and non-residential buildings
excepting B2 (offices) and B5 (hospitals). The concentrations
of settled PM were measured at various heights and were ranged
from 21.0 μg cm –2 to 86.6 µg cm –2 . The trend of gradual
decreasing of particulate matter occurrence with the raise of
height was observed (Fig. 2.).
Fig. 2. Average mass surface concentration of settled PM in dependence
on the height
The mass concentrations of metals in PM 10 samples
investigated by AAS are summarised in Table I.
The obtained mass concentrations of metals in indoor
particle samples correspond with those of in typical urban
aerosol 5 . The individual particles in irregular shape of the
various particle size as well as particles aggregates were
observed on the SEM micrographs (Fig. 3.).