Assessment of black carbon concentration as a potential measure of air quality at multi-purpose facilities

Abstract

Despite its potential adverse health effects, black carbon (BC) has not received much attention from the perspective of managing indoor air quality at multi-purpose facilities. In this scenario, real-time measurements of indoor BC were performed in a classroom, in parking lots, and in airplane cabins. Results showed that the average typical indoor BC concentration in a classroom is approximately 1 μg/m³, which is comparable to a typical ambient BC concentration. The indoor and ambient BC concentrations were simultaneously measured using two microAeth AE51s. The indoor BC concentrations varied during the experiments depending on the ambient BC concentrations, suggesting that both indoor and ambient concentrations show site- and/or source-specific correlative responses. The highest BC concentration was observed in parking lots, and it instantaneously reached 39 μg/m3. Our approach has important advantages for certain tasks such as the identification of hotspots and the monitoring of variations in BC concentrations as a supplementary tool.