Indoor/Outdoor Air Quality Assessment at School near the Steel Plant in Taranto (Italy)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the air quality in primary school placed in district of Taranto (south of Italy), an area of high environmental risk because of closeness between large industrial complex and urban settlement. The chemical characterization of PM2.5 was performed to identify origin of pollutants detected inside school and the comparison between indoor and outdoor levels of PAHs and metals allowed evaluating intrusion of outdoor pollutants or the existence of specific indoor sources. The results showed that the indoor and outdoor levels of PM2.5, BaP, Cd, Ni, As, and Pb never exceeded the target values issued by World Health Organization (WHO). Nevertheless, high metals and PAHs concentrations were detected especially when school were downwind to the steel plant. The / ratio showed the impact of outdoor pollutants, especially of industrial markers as Fe, Mn, Zn, and Pb, on indoor air quality. This result was confirmed by values of diagnostic ratio as B(a)P/B(g)P, IP/(IP + BgP), BaP/Chry, and BaP/(BaP + Chry), which showed range characteristics of coke and coal combustion. However, Ni and As showed / ratio of 2.5 and 1.4, respectively, suggesting the presence of indoor sources.

Occupational Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter (PM4 and PM2.5) during Hand-Made Cookware Operation: Personal, Indoor and Outdoor Levels

“…The relationship between personal, indoor and outdoor measurements was assessed. Our data are consistent with the general pattern observed in most PM monitoring studies [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]: outdoor levels are lower than indoor levels, and both indoor and outdoor levels are lower than personal levels. Elemental components in outdoor PM 2.5 filter mass are higher than indoors.…”

“…Exposure of artisanal cookware makers during cookware making is undocumented in the literature. Some studies conducted previously have shown that microenvironment assessment does not always reflect personal exposure [ 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Similarly, concurrent samples undertaken in this study revealed that the averaged personal exposure levels (3-h mean) at breathing zones of workers are much greater (490 µg/m 3 ) than those of the microenvironment levels.…”

Exposure to Particulate PAHs on Potential Genotoxicity and Cancer Risk among School Children Living Near the Petrochemical Industry

“…The PAH concentration in the research area was higher than in a study by Di Gilio et al, as the indoor concentration was up to 2.36 ng m −3 at a school near the steel industrial area [ 58 ]. BbF, BgP, IcP, BkF, and DbA species were identified as the most abundant constituents in that study, which was scientifically known as a proxy for traffic and coke oven emissions.…”

Indoor Air Quality: A Focus on the European Legislation and State-of-the-Art Research in Italy

“…Such topics are important because, based on the subpopulation interested, such as suggested by Manigrasso et al [50], which estimated the particle regional respiratory doses for both combustion and non-combustion aerosol sources currently encountered in microenvironments, with special regards to the age of subjects. Recent papers on school environments are related to monitoring PM, NO x , VOCs, and CO 2, with regard to the ventilation efficiency and the energy consumption [51][52][53][54][55][56]. As to the radon exposure, according to two papers, the schools are vulnerable targets due to the long daily childhood presence, and the radon risk could be reduced by low-cost interventions (e.g., implementation of natural air ventilation and school maintenance) [57,58].…”