Indoor Air Pollution In The Households Of Floating People In Shanghai

Floating people are a large and fast growing group of Chinese society. Whilemany studies investigated indoor air pollution in rural and urban parts of China, verylittle is known about indoor air pollution levels and exposure of floating people whoseliving condition differ from both urban and rural citizens.In this study indoor air quality was monitored in54households of floatingpeople in urban, suburban and rural areas of Shanghai. Time resolved concentrations offine particulate matter (PM_2.5), carbon monoxide （CO） and black carbon （BC） weresimultaneously monitored in kitchens, living rooms as well as outdoors in bothsummer and winter season. Moreover, gravimetric methods were used to collectparticles on the filter for ion, element and organic carbon/elemental carbon （OC/EC）analysis.The measured PM_2.5and CO concentrations routinely exceeded not only WHO’sguidelines but also Chinese indoor air quality standards. Pollutant levels weregenerally higher in winter than in summer.Our results indicate that burning of mosquito coils is associated with increasedPM_2.5and CO levels. Hence, we suggest, that public should be more aware of thenegative impacts of mosquito coils and other, less unhealthy products should be usedinstead. Furthermore, smoking and cooking werein some cases also associated withhigher pollutant levels.In addition, the average pollutant concentrations in the households of floatingpeople obtained in this study, together with the people activity pattern data obtainedbyrecall questionnaires, were used for indirect exposure assessment of floating people.Our results showed that floating people in Shanghai spent about65-81%of their time athome. Homes were shown to be more important exposure site to PM_2.5and CO thanoutdoorsfor all age groups and in all areas of Shanghai. Our results also indicate thatchildren and elderly are more exposed to household air pollution than adults and thatfemales have higher exposure than males.