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Source apportionment of indoor PM10 in Elderly Care Centre

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Abstract

Source contribution to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) has been exhaustively modelled. However, people spend most of their time indoors where this approach is less explored. This evidence worsens considering elders living in Elderly Care Centres, since they are more susceptible. The present study aims to investigate the PM composition and sources influencing elderly exposure. Two 2-week sampling campaigns were conducted—one during early fall (warm phase) and another throughout the winter (cold phase). PM10 were collected with two TCR-Tecora® samplers that were located in an Elderly Care Centre living room and in the correspondent outdoor. Chemical analysis of the particles was performed by neutron activation analysis for element characterization, by ion chromatography for the determination of water soluble ions and by a thermal optical technique for the measurement of organic and elemental carbon. Statistical analysis showed that there were no statistical differences between seasons and environments. The sum of the indoor PM10 components measured in this work explained 57 and 53 % of the total PM10 mass measured by gravimetry in warm and cold campaigns, respectively. Outdoor PM10 concentrations were significantly higher during the day than night (p value < 0.05), as well as Ca2+, Fe, Sb and Zn. The contribution of indoor and outdoor sources was assessed by principal component analysis and showed the importance of the highways and the airport located less than 500 m from the Elderly Care Centre for both indoor and outdoor air quality.

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Acknowledgments

The study would not be possible without the assistance of the Câmara Municipal de Loures, by Dr. Luzia Sousa and Dr. Beatriz Reis. We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Célia Alves and Prof. Dr. Teresa Nunes of CESAM, Aveiro University, Portugal, for providing a set of equipment. The authors also gratefully acknowledge Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for funding M. Almeida-Silva PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/69700/2010) and S. M. Almeida for her contract (IF/01078/2013). C2TN/IST authors gratefully acknowledge the FCT support through the UID/Multi/04349/2013 project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, E.N. 10 ao Km 139.7, 2695-066, Bobadela LRS, Portugal

    M. Almeida-Silva, T. Faria & S. M. Almeida

  2. Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Radiation, Radionuclides and Reactors, Section RIH, Technical University of Delft, Delft, The Netherlands

    M. Almeida-Silva & H. T. Wolterbeek

  3. Environmental Research Laboratory, Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Science & Technology, Energy & Safety, NCSR ‘DEMOKRITOS’, Athens, Greece

    D. Saraga & T. Maggos

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  1. M. Almeida-Silva
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  2. T. Faria
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  3. D. Saraga
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  4. T. Maggos
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  5. H. T. Wolterbeek
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  6. S. M. Almeida
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Correspondence to M. Almeida-Silva.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Fig. S1

Geographical location of the outdoor PM sampler (JPG 49 kb)

Fig. S2

Relation of PM10 components’ concentration in indoor environment and corresponding outdoor environment. The correlation coefficient (r) between the mean of indoor values and its outdoor are presented in the figure (bold values are statistically significant: p values < 0.05) (JPG 3755 kb)

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Almeida-Silva, M., Faria, T., Saraga, D. et al. Source apportionment of indoor PM10 in Elderly Care Centre. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 7814–7827 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5937-x

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