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Effect of portable air purifier on indoor air quality: reduced exposure to particulate matter and health risk assessment

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment volume 194, Article number: 638 (2022) Cite this article

Abstract

We sought to investigate the impact of air purifiers in the removal of particular matter (PM)10, PM2.5, PM1, and particle number concentration (PNC) in the indoor air of dormitories located at Iran’s largest medical university, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Twelve rooms were selected and randomly assigned to two rooms: sham air purifier system deployed room (SR) and true air purifier system deployed room (TR). All study samples were drawn simultaneously from assigned rooms using portable GRIMM dust monitors for 24 h. The PM monitors of air were positioned in the middle of each room next to the air purifier at the height of the breathing zone (1.5 m in height). The mean PM10, PM2.5, PM1, and PNC removal efficiency in rooms with and without a smoker were measured to be 40.7 vs 83.8%, 31.2 vs 78.4%, 29.9 vs 72.3%, and 44.3 vs 75.6%, respectively. The results showed that smoking is an important influencing factor on the indoor air quality; smoking lowered the removal efficiency of PM10, PM2.5, PM1, and PNC by 43%, 47%, 43%, and 31%, respectively. An air purifier could decline the PM10 and PM2.5 even lower than the WHO 24-h guideline level in non-smoker rooms. This study revealed that using household air purifiers in rooms with smokers and non-smokers significantly reduces the non-carcinogenic risks of exposure to PM10 and PM2.5.

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Data availability

Data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This study is part of a PhD thesis and funded by Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Tehran. Iran.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mehdi Fazlzadeh, Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand, Ramin Nabizadeh & Kazem Naddafi

  2. Department of Research Methodology and Data Analysis, Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mansour Shamsipour

  3. Tehran Heart Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mojtaba Salarifar

  4. Center for Air Pollution Research (CAPR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mehdi Fazlzadeh, Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand, Ramin Nabizadeh, Mansour Shamsipour & Kazem Naddafi

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  1. Mehdi Fazlzadeh
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  2. Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand
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  3. Ramin Nabizadeh
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Contributions

Mojtaba Salarifar and Ramin Nabizadeh participated in the writing, reviewing, and editing. Mohammad Sadegh Hassanvand involved in methodology and air sampling. Mansour Shamsipor is responsible for analysis and interpretation of data. Mehdi Fazlzadeh and Kazem Naddafi wrote the first draft of manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final paper as submitted.

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Correspondence to Kazem Naddafi.

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The protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Approval ID: IR.TUMS.SPH.REC.1398.122).

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Fazlzadeh, M., Hassanvand, M.S., Nabizadeh, R. et al. Effect of portable air purifier on indoor air quality: reduced exposure to particulate matter and health risk assessment. Environ Monit Assess 194, 638 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10255-w

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