AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
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Particle Size: A Missing Factor in Risk Exposure to Toxic Metals in Indoor Aerosols of South-East Asia
HIMANSHI ROHRA, Ajay Taneja, DR. B.R.A. University, Agra, India
Abstract Number: 423 Working Group: Aerosol Exposure
Abstract The work presents the investigation of indoor air pollution through analysis of metal bound size-resolved aerosols (2.5-10, 1.0-2.5, 0.5-1.0, 0.25-0.5,0.25-0.1 µm) in residential homes at Agra, a city in South East Asia. A cascade impactor with PTFE filters collected metal bound PM in coarse, fine and ultrafine PM ranges. The concentration levels of measured metals ranged as 9- 20% with lowest in coarse and highest in PM fraction with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5µm. Also, the crustal elements dominated coarse fraction whereas the ultrafine range showed relatively higher proportion of toxic elements. Identifying the metal concentration, Ca, Fe, Al, Mg, K - Group I elements (major) and Zn, Co, Ba, Cd, Cu, Mn, Cr, Pb, Ni in Group II (minor) elements. Interestingly, the sum of total metal concentration was observed higher in summers than winters unlike PM concentration that recorded higher concentration in winters. Bioavailability index further calculated showed the importance of smaller size particles in simulated lung environment that further varied with element (21% for Pb) and size (higher in PM0.5-0.25) elucidating increase in aerosol enrichment to finest particle. Results of this study aid in establishing relatively small international elemental modality dataset that could be incorporated in the exposure and risk assessment of indoor aerosols.