Indoor air pollutants in a building block in parma (Northern Italy)

Abstract

Sixty flats, located in a building block at Parma, were suryeved in order to get information about radon and carbon monoxide concentrations. The measurements of radon, collected using activated carbon canisters, gave an average concentration (23.4 Bq/m 3) close to that obtained in a preceding survey carried out in 97 dwellings in Parma. The values of the readings were relatively independent of the height of the storey from the ground. Also, no significative differences were noted between rooms with double-glazed windows and rooms with single-pane windows. Fifty four additional measurements inside two rooms of adjoining similar flats, one with double-pane windows, the other with ordinary windows, showed a mitigation of the difference in radon concentrations to the extent that the ventilation rate of the two rooms was increased by simply opening the windows a few minutes a day. The measurements of CO, performed with a gas filter correlation CO analyzer, gave an average concentration (3.3 mg/m 3) comparable to that reported for American houses. It has been shown that double-pane windows have moderate influence on the CO concentration. Whereas, it has been demonstrated that flats heated with gas stoves exhibit a higher concentration (3.9 mg/m 3) than flats heated with a furnace-radiators system (2.6 mg/m 3).