Indoor human exposure to size-fractionated aerosols during the 2015 Southeast Asian smoke haze and assessment of exposure mitigation strategies

The 2015 smoke haze episode was one of the most severe and prolonged transboundary air pollution events ever seen in Southeast Asia (SEA), affecting the air quality of several countries within the region including Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The 24 h mean outdoor PM2.5 (particulate matter (PM...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental research letters 2017-11, Vol.12 (11), p.114026
Main Authors: Sharma, Ruchi, Balasubramanian, Rajasekhar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aerosols
air cleaner
Air cleaners
Air pollution
Air quality
Airborne particulates
biomass burning
Carcinogens
Diameters
Emission control equipment
Exposure
Haze
Health risks
Indoor air pollution
Indoor air quality
Indoor environments
Mitigation
Outdoor air quality
Particulate emissions
Particulate matter
Public health
risk assessment
Smoke
smoke haze
Trace elements
Transboundary pollution
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The 2015 smoke haze episode was one of the most severe and prolonged transboundary air pollution events ever seen in Southeast Asia (SEA), affecting the air quality of several countries within the region including Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The 24 h mean outdoor PM2.5 (particulate matter (PM) with aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm) concentrations ranged from 72-157 μg m−3 in Singapore during this episode, exceeding the WHO 24 h mean PM2.5 guidelines (25 μg m−3) several times over. The smoke haze episode not only affected ambient air quality, but also indoor air quality due to the migration of PM of different sizes from the outdoor to the indoor environment. Despite the frequent occurrence of smoke haze episodes over the years, their potential health impacts on indoor building occupants remain largely unknown in SEA due to the lack of systematic investigations and observational data. The current work was carried out in Singapore to assess human exposure to size-resolved PM during the 2015 smoke haze episode, and to evaluate the effectiveness of exposure mitigation measures in smoke-haze-impacted naturally ventilated indoor environments. The potential health risks associated with exposure to PM2.5 were assessed based on the concentrations of redox active particulate-bound trace elements, which are known to be harmful to human health, with and without exposure mitigation. Overall, it was observed that human health exposure to PM2.5 and its carcinogenic chemical components was reduced substantially by 62% (p 
ISSN:1748-9326
1748-9326
DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/aa86dd