TY - JOUR
T1 - Primary pollutants in schoolchildren's homes in Wuhan, China
AU - Zhu, Shengwei
AU - Cai, Wei
AU - Yoshino, Hiroshi
AU - Yanagi, U.
AU - Hasegawa, Kenichi
AU - Kagi, Naoki
AU - Chen, Mingqing
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the families who were involved in this study for their helpful cooperation, and the undergraduate and master students in Huazhong University of Science and Technology who helped in the field campaigns. This work was sponsored by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) ( JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 24404019 ), the National Geographic Air and Water Conservation Fund (Grant No. GEFC13-13 ), the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry , and the General Program of Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province , China (Grant No. 2012FEB02603 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/11/1
Y1 - 2015/11/1
N2 - In 2013, field campaigns were performed in the naturally ventilated homes of ten schoolchildren living in Wuhan's urban area, with purpose to ascertain the primary indoor pollutants that have been associated with respiratory and allergic health in children. According to the 2-week monitoring, mean temperature and relative humidity were 19.5°C and 60% in autumn and 12.7°C and 55% in winter, respectively; mean level of carbon dioxide (CO2) was 525ppm in autumn and 748ppm in winter. Particulate matter (PM) led to the most severe indoor air pollution with 94% of gravimetric concentrations of PM2.5 far beyond 75μg/m3. Indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio of PM2.5 level varied between 0.72 and 1.04; furthermore, statistical analysis proved that indoor PM level was significantly associated with outdoor level (R2≥0.93, p<0.001, n=16). Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in air samples were always at the levels far below the recommended limits, 100μg/m3 and 48μg/m3, respectively; but total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) were higher than the national standard of 600μg/m3 in some homes. Furthermore, high levels of di(2-ethylexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were frequently detected in house dust. The results showed that airborne Aspergillus and Penicillium caused some concerns of fungal pollution in autumn. In conclusion, in the homes of the schoolchildren in Wuhan's urban area, airborne PM, and DEHP and DBP in house dust are primary pollutants; sometimes TVOCs also lead to indoor air pollution; in addition, airborne fungal components indicate to be a contributing factor to indoor pollution of concern in warm environment.
AB - In 2013, field campaigns were performed in the naturally ventilated homes of ten schoolchildren living in Wuhan's urban area, with purpose to ascertain the primary indoor pollutants that have been associated with respiratory and allergic health in children. According to the 2-week monitoring, mean temperature and relative humidity were 19.5°C and 60% in autumn and 12.7°C and 55% in winter, respectively; mean level of carbon dioxide (CO2) was 525ppm in autumn and 748ppm in winter. Particulate matter (PM) led to the most severe indoor air pollution with 94% of gravimetric concentrations of PM2.5 far beyond 75μg/m3. Indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio of PM2.5 level varied between 0.72 and 1.04; furthermore, statistical analysis proved that indoor PM level was significantly associated with outdoor level (R2≥0.93, p<0.001, n=16). Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in air samples were always at the levels far below the recommended limits, 100μg/m3 and 48μg/m3, respectively; but total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) were higher than the national standard of 600μg/m3 in some homes. Furthermore, high levels of di(2-ethylexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) were frequently detected in house dust. The results showed that airborne Aspergillus and Penicillium caused some concerns of fungal pollution in autumn. In conclusion, in the homes of the schoolchildren in Wuhan's urban area, airborne PM, and DEHP and DBP in house dust are primary pollutants; sometimes TVOCs also lead to indoor air pollution; in addition, airborne fungal components indicate to be a contributing factor to indoor pollution of concern in warm environment.
KW - Fungi
KW - Indoor pollution
KW - Particulate matter
KW - SVOCs
KW - Schoolchildren
KW - VOCs
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U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.028
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.028
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84938549837
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 93
SP - 41
EP - 53
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
IS - P1
ER -
