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Fermo P, Artíñano B, De Gennaro G, Pantaleo AM, Parente A, Battaglia F, Colicino E, Di Tanna G, Goncalves da Silva Junior A, Pereira IG, Garcia GS, Garcia Goncalves LM, Comite V, Miani A. Improving indoor air quality through an air purifier able to reduce aerosol particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs): Experimental results. Environ Res 2021; 197:111131. [PMID: 33865819 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111131] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2021] [Revised: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
The adverse effects of fine particulate matter (PM) and many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on human health are well known. Fine particles are, in fact, those most capable of penetrating in depth into the respiratory system. People spend most of their time indoors where concentrations of some pollutants are sometimes higher than outdoors. Therefore, there is the need to ensure a healthy indoor environment and for this purpose the use of an air purifier can be a valuable aid especially now since it was demonstrated that indoor air quality has a high impact on spreading of viral infections such as that due to SARS-COVID19. In this study, we tested a commercial system that can be used as an air purifier. In particular it was verified its efficiency in reducing concentrations of PM10 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm), PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm), PM1 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 1 μm), and particles number in the range 0.3 μm-10 μm. Furthermore, its capacity in reducing VOCs concentration was also checked. PM measurements were carried out by means of a portable optical particle counter (OPC) instrument simulating the working conditions typical of a household environment. In particular we showed that the tested air purifier significantly reduced both PM10 and PM2.5 by 16.8 and 7.25 times respectively that corresponds to a reduction of about 90% and 80%. A clear reduction of VOCs concentrations was also observed since a decrease of over 50% of these gaseous substances was achieved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Fermo
- Department of Chemistry, University of Milan, Milan, 20133, Italy; Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, (SIMA), Milan, 20123, Italy.
| | - Begoña Artíñano
- Centre for Energy, Environment and Technologies (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
| | - Gianluigi De Gennaro
- Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, (SIMA), Milan, 20123, Italy; Department of Biology, University "Aldo Moro" of Bari, Bari, Italy
| | | | - Alessandro Parente
- Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ecole Polytechnique de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
| | | | | | - Gianluca Di Tanna
- The George Institute for Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | | | | | | | | | - Valeria Comite
- Department of Chemistry, University of Milan, Milan, 20133, Italy
| | - Alessandro Miani
- Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, (SIMA), Milan, 20123, Italy; Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
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