Particle exposure during the 2013 haze in Singapore : importance of the built environment
Author
Zhou, Jin
Chen, Ailu
Cao, Qingliang
Yang, Bin
Chang, Victor Wei-Chung
Nazaroff, William W.
Date of Issue
2015School
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Version
Accepted version
Abstract
The 2013 haze was the most serious air pollution event in Singapore's history. Individual exposures to particulate matter differ (a) according to time patterns of behaviour and (b) with the varying degrees of protection provided by buildings against penetration and persistence of outdoor particles. Utilizing real-time personal monitoring, we evaluated exposures to size-segregated fine particulate matter (PM) of five office workers for six days during the latter portion of the 2013 haze event. The outdoor volume concentrations of particulate matter (0.3–2.5 μm diameter) during moderate and light haze days were in the ranges 15–21 μm3/cm3 and 7–10 μm3/cm3, respectively. More than 80% of total daily exposures occurred indoors in workplaces and residences. The daily-integrated personal exposures for the five subjects during the moderate and light haze days were 140–454 (μm3/cm3)-h and 66–239 (μm3/cm3)-h, respectively. Exposure factors for the five participants, quantifying the extent of exposure reduction associated with being indoors, had daily average values ranging from 0.32 to 0.75. The results of this study contribute toward deeper understanding the degree of protection provided by the buildings from pollution of outdoor origin. The work also contributes knowledge regarding personal exposure to particulate matter during air pollution episodes, especially for tropical climates.
Subject
DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering::Environmental pollution
Type
Journal Article
Series/Journal Title
Building and environment
Rights
© 2015 Elsevier. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by Building and Environment, Elsevier. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.04.029].
Collections
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.04.029
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