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Use of a Low-Cost PM Sensor Network to Characterize the Impact of 2020 Washington Wildfire on Indoor Air Quality and Personal Exposure
CHING-HSUAN HUANG, Nanhsun Yuan, Jiayang He, Mei-Yu Liao, Selina Teng, Igor Novosselov, University of Washington
Abstract Number: 475
Working Group: Wildfire Aerosols
Abstract
Exposure to wildfire smoke has been linked to an increased risk of cancer and cardiorespiratory mortality. Recently, low-cost air quality sensor networks have been widely implemented in different scenarios to identify pollution sources and hotspots given their capability of capturing high spatiotemporal resolution data. In 2020, a series of large wildfire events occurred in Oregon, California, and Washington State in the United States, making public more aware of the impact of wildfire on air quality. This study utilizes a low-cost particulate matter (PM) sensor network to quantify the PM concentration indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios and the personal exposure to PM during a wildfire episode in Seattle, Washington. During September 2020, seven pairs of indoor and outdoor PM sensors were deployed in the seven households located in the urban Seattle area along with a personal exposure monitor worn by a subject. The results showed that households equipped with high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters had lower I/O ratios compared to those without air filtration; median I/O ratio of 0.38 vs. 0.80, respectively. The distributed sensor network had high correlations of outdoor PM2.5 concentration measurements with a nearby Puget Sound Clean Air Agency monitor (R2 = 0.93). The wearable monitor showed high variance as the subject spent time in different microenvironments. When the daily personal exposure was proportionally attributed to each location, the wearable sensor data agreed with stationary monitors for the same microenvironment. The findings have implications in developing intervention strategies in reducing PM2.5 exposures and the associated health effects of wildfire smoke. Future studies with controlled environments and larger sample sizes are warranted to investigate the roles of other factors such as air exchange rate in mitigating the impact of wildfire smoke on indoor air quality.