particulate matter

In 2022, a new law was passed by the Belgian federal government with the purpose to enhance the indoor air quality in public spaces in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This new law, among other things, requires publicly accessible spaces to apply a CO2 meter and provides the option to have an IAQ label in place that informs the visitor about the indoor air quality of that space.

Many children between 1 and 3 years of age spend a fraction of their time in kindergartens. Poor indoor air quality, IAQ, could negatively affect children’s health, particularly respiratory health, attendance, and academic achievement.

Identifying factors that affect classroom concentrations of particulate matter is important for enabling effective mitigation of the associated negative health and cognitive effects, of which children can be especially susceptible. This study examines particulate matter concentrations in school classrooms from across the UK which have participated in the Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education (SAMHE) project. Data from the 2023/2024 academic year is analysed and outdoor sources of particulate matter (PM) are shown to be a key source of PM in classrooms.

The project aims to investigate the degree of influence that outdoor conditions may have on the indoor environment in Norwegian schools. It also aims to ascertain whether it is possible to use outdoor parameters such as particulate matter, relative humidity, and air temperature, along with indoor parameters including CO2, relative humidity, and air temperature, to predict indoor particulate matter values.

The measurement of particulate matter (PM) in rooms has gained interest in the last decade. However, the sensors that are currently used are intended for use in still standing air and cannot be applied to ventilation ducts with a typical velocity up to a couple of meters per second. Therefore, a prototype of a measurement module for particulate matter has been developed for use in ducts of ventilation systems. To the author’s knowledge, this has not been done before.

Particles generated from cooking activities are the biggest contributor to the concentration of indoor particles in most homes, and they are not easily removed without natural or mechanical ventilation. As more focus is directed on human health, kitchen range hoods have drawn increasing attention and their performance in various conditions needs to be evaluated. Consequently, in this study, we performed measurements to establish the particle capture efficiency of a kitchen range hood for various particle diameters at different exhaust flow rates.

Indoor air pollution can pose a serious threat to human health and can increase the risk of early mortality. Studies have shown that human exposure to indoor pollution is more common than to outdoor pollution, especially where people spend the majority of their time indoors at home. Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are used in buildings to regulate internal climate to improve the comfort level for occupants. In addition, ventilation rates are often increased to maintain appropriate Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).

Maintaining a good indoor air quality level has received growing attention in the past years. Especially the smaller particles like PM2.5 (particles of aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) and UFP (ultrafine particles, aerodynamic diameter less than 100 nm) might lead to higher health risks. Vehicle cabin is one challenging environment due to the elevated particle concentrations from the surroundings.

In the current era, sensors in buildings have become an essential requirement for wide applications such as monitoring indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal and environmental conditions, controlling building heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems (HVAC). To accurately control the IAQ for all areas in the indoor space, it is necessary to obtain considerable data from different locations in the space for more precision.

Within the ventilation principle of buildings, the outdoor air is considered as a source of fresh, "clean" air. However, as we all know, this is not always the case. Although the outdoor air quality in our cities already improved, the concentrations of certain pollutants, especially particulate matter and peak pollutions of ozone (and its precursors nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds), remain problematic.