Concurrent Assessment of Personal, Indoor, and Outdoor PM2.5 and PM1 Levels and Source Contributions using Novel Low‐cost Sensing Devices

Contact: Shih-Chun Candice Lung / sclung@rcec.sinica.edu.tw / (02) 2787-5908

Key words: indoor particles; Asian PM exposure sources; PM sensing device; I/O ratio; low-cost sensors; exposure behavior

   The intensity, frequency, duration, and contribution of distinct PM2.5 sources in Asian households have seldom been assessed; these are evaluated in this work with concurrent personal, indoor, and outdoor PM2.5 and PM1 monitoring using novel low-cost sensing (LCS) devices, AS-LUNG. GRIMM-comparable observations were acquired by the corrected AS-LUNG readings, with R2 up to 0.998.

    Twenty-six non-smoking healthy adults were recruited in Taiwan in 2018 for 7-day personal, home indoor, and home outdoor PM monitoring. The results showed 5-min PM2.5 and PM1 exposures of 11.2 ± 10.9 and 10.5 ± 9.8 µg/m3, respectively. Cooking occurred most frequently; cooking with and without solid fuel contributed to high PM2.5 increments of 76.5 and 183.8 µg/m3 (1-min), respectively. Incense burning had the highest mean PM2.5 indoor/outdoor (1.44 ± 1.44) ratios at home and on average the highest 5-min PM2.5 increments (15.0 µg/m3) to indoor levels, among all single sources. Certain events accounted for 14.0-39.6% of subjects’ daily exposures. With the high resolution of AS-LUNG data and detailed time–activity diaries, the impacts of sources and ventilations were assessed in detail.

Key points

  • This work showed the applicability of low-cost sensing (LCS) devices in PM assessment.
  • LCS devices, AS-LUNG, can assess concurrent personal, indoor, and outdoor PM levels.
  • AS-LUNG can capture the personal and at-home peak exposure with high time-resolution data.
  • Cooking, second-hand smoke and incense burning were the three most important PM sources.
  • Incense burning had the highest PM increments to personal/indoor levels.

More information

  • Lung, S. C. C.*; Tsou, M. C. M.; Hu, S. C.; Hsieh, Y. H.; Wang, W. C. V.; Shui, C. K.; Tan, C. H. (2020.12) Concurrent assessment of personal, indoor, and outdoor PM2.5 and PM1 levels and source contributions using novel low‐cost sensing devices. Indoor Air, 16913006. DOI: 10.1111/ina.12763.

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