Abstract
An intensive field campaign was conducted to monitor indoor air formaldehyde in two French elementary schools for 5 weeks, where the experimental conditions were modified every week. Formaldehyde concentration was monitored using two portable laboratory prototypes with a detection limit of 1 μg m−3 and a temporal resolution of 2 s. Carbon dioxide concentration, temperature (T), and relative humidity (RH) were also recorded over the whole field campaign. To take advantage of continuous measurement of formaldehyde for post-data analysis, these 2-s raw formaldehyde concentrations were then used to recalculate the average values for several time steps, i.e., 1 min, 10 min, 1 h, and 1 day. This paper highlights that a time resolution of 10 min is sufficient and well adapted to monitor most of the variations of formaldehyde concentrations observed in these two classrooms. The weekly mean formaldehyde concentrations calculated were in the ranges of 25.6–33.8 μg m−3 and 14.7–26.8 μg m−3 for schools 1 (S1) and 2 (S2), respectively, once excluded an unwanted painting event in S1. The results obtained were in excellent agreement with those determined by using the reference method based on DNPH derivatization. The results also revealed that building materials and furniture were two significant formaldehyde emission sources. Unlike most of the studies found in the literature in which formaldehyde is monitored using passive sampling, continuous measurements allowed us to estimate real children’s exposure. When considering only the children’s occupation time, a significant decrease in average formaldehyde concentration ranging between 20 and 34 % was observed for weeks 4 and 5 when the occupants followed specific strategies for natural ventilation. Opening the windows as soon as the CO2 exceeds the thresholds appears to be the most efficient way to limit exposure to formaldehyde in the two investigated schools. The findings of this paper demonstrate the importance of continuous and accurate formaldehyde measurements with at least 10-min time resolution which could serve as a roadmap for future developments of formaldehyde low-cost sensors.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because the authors want to keep the priority for conference presentations, but they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the technical department of ICPEES as well as all the administrative staff of ICPEES for their support.
Funding
This work has been conducted in the framework of the IMPACT’AIR project financially supported by ADEME (Agence De l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie), the city of La Rochelle, and the Ligue contre le cancer. The formaldehyde microanalyzers were developed and fabricated in the framework of the CAPFEIN project funded by ANR (ANR-11-ECOT-0013).
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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Claire Trocquet, Irene Lara-Ibeas, Anaïs Becker, and Stéphane Le Calvé. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Stéphane Le Calvé, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Highlights
● Building materials and furniture are the two main emission sources of formaldehyde in the two investigated schools.
● The time resolution used for monitoring does not affect the weekly average concentrations but has an impact on the minimum and maximum values.
● A time step of 10 min accurately describes the time variations of formaldehyde concentration indoors.
● Real-time monitoring permits to determine the formaldehyde levels corresponding to the real occupant’s exposure time, unlike passive sampling.
● Opening the windows as soon as the CO 2 exceeds the thresholds reduces the exposure to formaldehyde by one-third.
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Trocquet, C., Lara-Ibeas, I., Becker, A. et al. Continuous real-time monitoring of formaldehyde over 5 weeks in two French primary schools: identification of the relevant time resolution and the most appropriate ventilation scenario. Air Qual Atmos Health 16, 1091–1115 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-023-01328-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-023-01328-x