Concentrations of Indoor Submicrometer and Supermicrometer Particulate Matter in a Primary School in Prague
Abstrakt
Children are susceptible to environment pollution and school is the second environment when they spent most of their time (Silvers et al., 1994). Therefore, pollution in the school environment can affect their health, wellbeing and even their school results (Mendell and Heath, 2005).
Particle matter (PM) in schools could have both indoor and outdoor origin. Indoor generated particles are mostly coarse and are produced by resuspension.
In urban areas the majority of outdoor PM have its source in traffic. These particles contain a number of hazardous substances and generally and their aerodynamic diameter is usually below 1 micron.
It has been repeatedly shown that they easily penetrate into classrooms (Avigo et al., 2008; Branis et al., 2009). However, it was also documented, that submicrometer particles can be produces by children and by the activity they perform (Morawska et al., 2009).
The present work investigated concentrations of aerosol particles, in specialized classrooms in an elementary school situated in the centre of Prague. y/Chemistry classroom 55.7m2 (2nd floor). It was found that mass concentrations of submicrometer particles were dependent on outdoor concentrations (regression, p-value<0.002 or less for all classrooms), in contrast to supermicrometer particles which were affected mainly by students.
The outdoor concentration had a very limited influence.