Assessing school children's personal exposure to PM2.5 in Suva, Fiji

Abstract

Globally, there is little information on children's personal exposure to particle pollution in developing countries, and hardly any in the Pacific Island Countries. This study was conducted with school children in Suva, Fiji, with the aim of assisting to fill this gap in knowledge. The participants included eighty-four children ranging from 10 to 15 years of age from five schools and two communities, defined as Group A and Group B, respectively. Each child was fitted with a KOALA air quality monitor which measured PM2.5 and carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in real time over 24 h. Time activity diaries (TAD) and questionnaires were used by the students to record the start and end times of each activity in the different microenvironments occupied. For both groups, the PM2.5 concentration averaged over all children showed three distinct peaks in the morning, midday and in the evening. Several CO peaks were formed at different times of the day. The 24-h average CO concentrations for Group A and Group B students were 0.35 mg/m3 and 0.43 mg/m3, respectively. Time spent in the bedroom showed the highest average exposure (94.3 μg/m3, 301.1 μg/m3) and exposure intensity (5.8, 14.3), with the indoor exposure at home being significantly higher than the outdoor exposure for both groups. Based on the information obtained from the time activity diaries, questionnaires and follow-up interviews, the sources of these particles were most probably from cooking, smoking, burning of mosquito repellent coils, resuspension of dust in the classroom.Although this study could not apportion the specific contributions of emissions from cooking, cigarette smoke and mosquito coils, it may be concluded that these are significant sources for children's exposure and should be controlled.