10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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Residential PM Measured in 50 Homes Using Low-cost Monitors over Two Heating Seasons in Rochester, NY
Gursumeeran Satsangi, Mauro Masiol, Nadežda Zíková, David C. Chalupa, David Q. Rich, Philip K. Hopke, ANDREA R. FERRO, Clarkson University
Abstract Number: 810 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract Heating appliances using wood and wood products for combustion are a major source of airborne PM and related pollutants during the heating season in Rochester, NY (Wang et al., 2012). Although most regulatory short-term PM monitoring is based on 24-h integrated measurements in relatively few locations, health outcomes may be triggered by increases in PM concentrations in the previous few hours (e.g., Gardner et al., 2014), and PM concentrations can vary greatly across an urban area (Zikova et al., 2017a). Temporally and spatially resolved estimates of PM exposure to wood smoke and other sources are needed to understand how health outcomes are associated with increases in PM concentration a few hours later.
Continuous 1-minute indoor and outdoor PM concentrations were measured from November through April of 2015/16 and 2016/17 at 25 residences per season across Monroe County, New York using Speck (Airviz Inc., Pittsburgh, PA) low-cost monitors (LCMs). Study participants either had wood burning appliances in their homes or reported that they often smelled wood smoke near their homes. CO concentration was measured in the main living area of the homes using data loggers with electrochemical sensors (EL-USB-CO, Lascar Electronics, Erie, PA). During the 2016/17 season, a thermocouple with a datalogger was attached to the wood burning appliance. The Speck LCMs were found to be reasonably precise but with a large bias (Zikova et al., 2017a,b). To correct the bias, the Speck LCM measurements were adjusted to the ratio of the average PM2.5 concentration measured by a GRIMM 1.109 aerosol spectrometer (Douglasville, GA, USA) to the average concentration for each Speck LCM during a multi-day collocation period.
The mean indoor/outdoor (I/O) PM ratio was 1.7 for all homes and increased to 2.5 when a combustion source was operated as indicated by an elevated CO concentration. Increases in wood-burning appliance temperature and indoor CO concentrations were found to be associated with an overall moderate (mean value of several µg/m3) increase in indoor PM concentration averaged over the heating season. Short-term PM increases greater than 100 µg/m3 were periodically observed in homes with and without wood-burning appliances operating. The concentration pattern showed clear morning and evening peaks as well as higher indoor concentrations during the weekends when people are typically at home.
The concentrations measured by the LCMs at 25 homes were often lower than the estimated limit of detection of 10 μg/m3, and the outdoor bias-corrected LCM measurements were ~40% of the mean PM2.5 concentrations measured by the FEM located within the study geographic area (Zikova et al., 2017a,b). Also, many combustion particles are in the size range below the nominal 0.5 µm sensor lower limit of detection. Thus, the PM concentrations produced by combustion sources are likely to have been underestimated in this study.
This study provides an approach for exposure assessment in individual homes that can be utilized by employing appropriate calibration and quality assurance procedures for the LCMs.
Acknowledgement This work was supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) under agreement #63040.
References [1] Gardner B, Ling F, Hopke PK, Frampton MW, Utell MJ, Zareba W, Cameron SJ, Chalupa D, Kane C, Kulandhaisamy S, Topf M, Rich DQ. 2014. Particle & Fibre Toxicol., 11, pp. 1. [2] Wang Y, Hopke PK, Xia X, Rattigan OV, Chalupa DC, Utell MJ. 2012. Atmospheric Environment, 55:525-532. [3] Zíková, N, Masiol M, Chalupa DC, Rich DQ, Ferro AR, Hopke PK. 2017a. Sensors, 17:1922. [4] Zíková N, Hopke PK, Ferro AR. 2017b. Journal of Aerosol Science, 105:24-34.