Abstract
Due to the recent industrial development and COVID-19 pandemic, people are spending more time indoors. Therefore, indoor air quality is becoming more important for the health of occupants. Indoor fine particles are increased by outdoor air pollution and indoor occupant activities. In particular, smoking, cooking, cleaning, and ventilation are occupant activities that have the largest impact on indoor particle concentrations. In this study, indoor and outdoor particle concentrations were measured in ten apartment houses in South Korea for 24 h. Indoor particle concentrations were measured in the kitchen and living room to evaluate the impact of cooking, one of the most important sources of indoor particles. An occupant survey was also conducted to analyze the influence of occupant activities. It was found that the impact of outdoor particles on indoor particle concentrations in winter was not significant. The largest particle source was cooking. In particular, a large amount of particles was generated by broiling and frying. In addition, cooking-generated particles are rapidly dispersed to the living room, and this was more obvious for small particles. It is expected that this result will be statistically generalized if the particle concentration of more houses is analyzed in the future.
Highlights
Today, people are spending most of their time indoors [1]
The effects of outdoor particles and occupant activities on indoor particle concentrations were evaluated for apartment houses in South Korea
Measurement was performed in winter when the outdoor particle concentration is relatively high
Summary
People are spending most of their time indoors [1]. In particular, telecommuting has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic of late, and this trend is expected to continue for a while [2]. The indoor living environment is becoming more important. The importance of indoor air quality, which may have a significant influence on the health of occupants, is attracting more attention [3]. If occupants are exposed to poor IAQ(Indoor Air Quality), they may get respiratory and skin diseases [4]. Many pollutants are generated by infiltration from the outside, ventilation, building materials, and occupant activities [5]. There are various indoor pollutants, including carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, and fine particles [6,7,8,9]. It was reported that carcinogenic potential may increase if people are continuously exposed to fine particles [10]
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