Tran Phuong T M, Adam Max G, Balasubramanian Rajasekhar
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore; Faculty of Environment, University of Science and Technology, The University of Danang, 54 Nguyen Luong Bang Street, Lien Chieu District, Danang City, Viet Nam.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore.
J Hazard Mater. 2021 Feb 5;403:123555. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123555. Epub 2020 Jul 29.
During the 2019 smoke haze episode in Singapore, elevated levels of fine particulate matter (PM) were observed, deteriorating both ambient and indoor air quality (IAQ). We investigated the mitigation of indoor human exposure to PM of outdoor origin under diverse exposure scenarios with and without filtration of PM during both hazy and non-hazy days. The key objective of our study was to make a comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of portable air cleaners (PACs) and air conditioning (AC) systems equipped with particle filters in improving IAQ and to assess related long-term carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks. We conducted real-time measurements of PM, black carbon mass concentrations and particle number concentrations in both indoor and outdoor areas, quantified the relative concentrations of the water-soluble fraction of toxic trace elements in PM for health risk assessment, and estimated the levels of thermal comfort. In addition, we calculated the total estimated cost of indoor air pollution control. Our findings suggest that indoor air cleaners are more effective at mitigating human exposure to airborne particles and reducing health risk with less consumption of electricity and better cost-effectiveness compared to AC. This information would be beneficial for public health interventions during major air pollution events.
在2019年新加坡烟雾霾害事件期间，观测到细颗粒物（PM）水平升高，导致室外和室内空气质量（IAQ）恶化。我们研究了在有霾和无霾的不同暴露场景下，在有和没有过滤PM的情况下，室内人群对源自室外的PM暴露的减轻情况。我们研究的主要目的是对配备颗粒过滤器的便携式空气净化器（PAC）和空调（AC）系统在改善室内空气质量方面的有效性进行比较评估，并评估相关的长期致癌和非致癌健康风险。我们对室内和室外区域的PM、黑碳质量浓度和颗粒数浓度进行了实时测量，对PM中有毒微量元素的水溶性部分的相对浓度进行了量化以进行健康风险评估，并估算了热舒适度水平。此外，我们计算了室内空气污染控制的总估算成本。我们的研究结果表明，与空调相比，室内空气净化器在减轻人体对空气中颗粒物的暴露以及降低健康风险方面更有效，且耗电量更少、成本效益更高。这些信息将有助于在重大空气污染事件期间开展公共卫生干预措施。
