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PMHOME: A DATABASE OF CONTINUOUS PARTICLE MEASUREMENTS IN AN OCCUPIED HOUSE OVER A FOUR-YEAR PERIOD
Citation:
Wallace, L A., C Croghan, C HowardReed, AND A. Persily. PMHOME: A DATABASE OF CONTINUOUS PARTICLE MEASUREMENTS IN AN OCCUPIED HOUSE OVER A FOUR-YEAR PERIOD. Presented at Indoor Air 2002, Monterey, CA, June 30-July 5, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
The main objective is to investigate human exposure to fine and coarse particles (and PAHs) from several important sources such as cooking, woodsmoke, and household cleaning. A second objective is to investigate the observed increased personal exposure (compared to indoor air concentrations measured by a fixed monitor) to particles: the so-called "personal cloud," that has been observed in many occupational and some environmental studies. A third objective is to incorporate the findings into a mass-balance indoor air quality model.
Description:
Although considerable data exist on 24-hour integrated measurements of fine and coarse particles indoors, much less information is available on moment-to-moment variation for a full range of particle sizes including ultrafine particles. Also, information is limited on the relationships between air change rates, temperature, humidity, indoor-outdoor concentration ratios, indoor source strengths due to various activities such as cooking and cleaning, penetration factors, and deposition rates under realistic conditions. Therefore EPA and NIST have collaborated on a four-year (October 1, 1996 through Dec. 31, 2000) study of particle concentrations in an occupied townhouse.
Target pollutants included ultrafine, fine, and coarse particles from 10 nm to 20 um in diameter; black carbon (BC); and particle-bound polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Ancillary measurements included air change rates, wind velocity, temperature, and relative humidity. Measurements were made continuously and the final database (PMHOME) is on a 5-minute basis. PMHOME is available to researchers in Statistica or SAS format. Types of investigations that can be done using PMHOME include calculating the relative contribution of outdoor air particles to indoor air concentrations, effects of indoor sources such as cooking and candle burning, and relationships of air change rates to outdoor temperature and wind speed.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and has been approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.