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Residential infiltration of fine and ultrafine particles in Edmonton
Citation
Kearney, J and Wallace, L and MacNeill, M and Heroux, M-E and Kindzierski, W and Wheeler, A, Residential infiltration of fine and ultrafine particles in Edmonton, Atmospheric Environment, 94 pp. 793-805. ISSN 1352-2310 (2014) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Licenced under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
DOI: doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.05.020
Abstract
Airborne indoor particles arise from both indoor sources and ambient particles that have infiltrated
indoors. The intra-urban variability of infiltration factors (Finf) is a source of measurement error in
epidemiological studies estimating exposure from a central site measurement, hence information on
the within and between-home variability of Finf is useful to better characterize ambient PM exposure.
The objective of this paper was to estimate magnitudes and predictors of daily residential infiltration
factors (Finf) and ambient/non-ambient components of indoor ultrafine particle (UFP) and fine particle
(FP) concentrations. FPs and UFPs were measured continuously for 7 consecutive days in 74
Edmonton homes in winter and summer 2010 (50 homes in each season). Simultaneous measurements
of outdoor (near-home) FP and ambient (at a central site) UFP concentrations were also
measured. Daily infiltration factors were estimated for each home; considerable variability was seen
within and between homes. For FPs, seasonal-averaged Finf (the average of the 7 daily Finf estimates)
ranged from 0.10 to 0.92 in winter (median ¼ 0.30, n ¼ 49) and 0.31 to 0.99 in summer
(median ¼ 0.68, n ¼ 48). For UFPs, the seasonal-averaged Finf ranged from 0.08 to 0.47 across homes
in winter (median ¼ 0.21, n ¼ 33 houses) and from 0.16 to 0.94 in summer (median ¼ 0.57, n ¼ 48).
The higher median Finf in summer was attributed to a high frequency of open windows. Daily infiltration
factors were also estimated based on the indoor/outdoor PM1 sulfur ratio. These estimates
were poorly correlated with DustTrak-based FP infiltration factor estimates; the difference may be
due to losses of volatile components on the PM1 filter samples. Generalized linear mixed models were
used to identify variables significantly associated with Finf and the non-ambient component of indoor
FP and UFP concentrations. Wind speed was consistently associated with Finf across all seasons for
both FPs and UFPs. The use of an air cleaner was associated with reduced UFP infiltration factors in
summer, suggesting a potential method of reducing infiltrated UFPs. Various cooking activities and
smoking were associated with the non-ambient component of indoor FP and UFP concentrations. On
average, the majority of indoor FPs were of ambient origin while the majority of UFPs were of indoor origin. In summer, more of the indoor FP and UFP concentrations were from ambient origin,
compared to winter, due to the higher infiltration factors. The variability in FP and UFP Finf within and
between homes may cause substantial exposure misclassification in epidemiological studies using
only ambient measurements.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Ultrafine particles, Fine particles, Infiltration factor, Residential, Indoor air quality, Exposure misclassification |
Research Division: | Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services |
Research Group: | Human resources and industrial relations |
Research Field: | Occupational and workplace health and safety |
Objective Division: | Health |
Objective Group: | Public health (excl. specific population health) |
Objective Field: | Public health (excl. specific population health) not elsewhere classified |
UTAS Author: | Wheeler, A (Dr Amanda Wheeler) |
ID Code: | 101142 |
Year Published: | 2014 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 64 |
Deposited By: | Menzies Institute for Medical Research |
Deposited On: | 2015-06-10 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-04 |
Downloads: | 292 View Download Statistics |
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