Real-Time Measurements of Indoor-Outdoor Exchange of Gaseous and Particulate Atmospheric Pollutants in an Urban Area

Air pollution is one of the greatest environmental risks to health, causing millions of deaths and deleterious health effects worldwide, especially in urban areas where citizens are exposed to high ambient levels of pollutants, also influencing indoor air quality (IAQ). Many sources of indoor air are fairly obvious and well known, but the contribution of outside sources to indoor air still leads to significant uncertainties, in particular the influence that environmental variables have on outdoor/indoor pollutant exchange mechanisms. This is a critical aspect to consider in IAQ studies. In this respect, an experimental study was performed at a public site such as a university classroom during a non-academic period in Madrid city. This includes two field campaigns, in summer (2021) and winter (2020), where instruments for measuring gases and particle air pollutants simultaneously measured outdoor and indoor real-time concentrations. This study aimed to investigate the dynamic variations in the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios in terms of ambient outdoor conditions (meteorology, turbulence and air quality) and indoor features (human presence or natural ventilation). The results show that the I/O ratio is pollutant-dependent. In this sense, the infiltration capacity is higher for gaseous compounds, and in the case of particles, it depends on the particle size, with a higher infiltration capacity for smaller particles ( Collapse

Key Words

• gaseous and particulate pollutants
• indoor activities
• indoor air quality (IAQ)
• real-time I/O measurements
• urban air pollutants

Collapse

MESH Headings

• Humans
• Particulate Matter/analysis
• Environmental Pollutants
• Gases
• Environmental Monitoring/methods
• Air Pollutants/analysis
• Particle Size
• Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis

Collapse

Grants Collapse

Affiliation(s)

Elisabeth Alonso-Blanco Department of Environment, CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), 28040 Madrid, Spain; (F.J.G.-M.); (E.D.-R.); (J.F.); (E.C.); (B.A.)
Francisco Javier Gómez-Moreno Department of Environment, CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), 28040 Madrid, Spain; (F.J.G.-M.); (E.D.-R.); (J.F.); (E.C.); (B.A.)
Elías Díaz-Ramiro Department of Environment, CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), 28040 Madrid, Spain; (F.J.G.-M.); (E.D.-R.); (J.F.); (E.C.); (B.A.)
Javier Fernández Department of Environment, CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), 28040 Madrid, Spain; (F.J.G.-M.); (E.D.-R.); (J.F.); (E.C.); (B.A.)
Esther Coz Department of Environment, CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), 28040 Madrid, Spain; (F.J.G.-M.); (E.D.-R.); (J.F.); (E.C.); (B.A.)
Carlos Yagüe Department of Earth Physics and Astrophysics, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain;
Carlos Román-Cascón Department of Applied Physics, Marine and Environmental Sciences Faculty, INMAR, CEIMAR, University of Cadiz, 11519 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain;
Adolfo Narros Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), 28006 Madrid, Spain; (A.N.); (R.B.)
Rafael Borge Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), 28006 Madrid, Spain; (A.N.); (R.B.)
Begoña Artíñano Department of Environment, CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas), 28040 Madrid, Spain; (F.J.G.-M.); (E.D.-R.); (J.F.); (E.C.); (B.A.)

Collapse