| Title: | Improving indoor air quality through an air purifier able to reduce aerosol particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs): Experimental results |
| Author(s): | Fermo P; Artinano B; de Gennaro G; Pantaleo AM; Parente A; Battaglia F; Colicino E; Di Tanna G; Goncalves da Silva Junior A; Pereira IG; Garcia GS; Garcia Goncalves LM; Comite V; Miani A; |
| Address: | "Department of Chemistry, University of Milan, Milan, 20133, Italy; Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, (SIMA), Milan, 20123, Italy. Electronic address: paola.fermo@unimi.it. Centre for Energy, Environment and Technologies (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain. Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, (SIMA), Milan, 20123, Italy; Department of Biology, University 'Aldo Moro' of Bari, Bari, Italy. Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College, London, UK. Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Ecole Polytechnique de Bruxelles, Bruxelles, Belgium. Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA. The George Institute for Global Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Federal Institute of Rio Grande Do Norte, Mossoro, RN, Brazil. Telecommunications Research and Development Center (CPQD), Campinas, SP, Brazil. Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Brasilia, Brazil. Federal University of Rio Grande Do Norte, Natal, RN, Brazil. Department of Chemistry, University of Milan, Milan, 20133, Italy. Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, (SIMA), Milan, 20123, Italy; Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan, Milan, Italy" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111131 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1096-0953 (Electronic) 0013-9351 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The adverse effects of fine particulate matter (PM) and many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on human health are well known. Fine particles are, in fact, those most capable of penetrating in depth into the respiratory system. People spend most of their time indoors where concentrations of some pollutants are sometimes higher than outdoors. Therefore, there is the need to ensure a healthy indoor environment and for this purpose the use of an air purifier can be a valuable aid especially now since it was demonstrated that indoor air quality has a high impact on spreading of viral infections such as that due to SARS-COVID19. In this study, we tested a commercial system that can be used as an air purifier. In particular it was verified its efficiency in reducing concentrations of PM10 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 mum), PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 mum), PM1 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 1 mum), and particles number in the range 0.3 mum-10 mum. Furthermore, its capacity in reducing VOCs concentration was also checked. PM measurements were carried out by means of a portable optical particle counter (OPC) instrument simulating the working conditions typical of a household environment. In particular we showed that the tested air purifier significantly reduced both PM10 and PM2.5 by 16.8 and 7.25 times respectively that corresponds to a reduction of about 90% and 80%. A clear reduction of VOCs concentrations was also observed since a decrease of over 50% of these gaseous substances was achieved" |
| Keywords: | "Aerosols *Air Filters *Air Pollutants/analysis *Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis *covid-19 Environmental Monitoring Humans Particle Size Particulate Matter/analysis SARS-CoV-2 *Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis Air cleaner Indoor air quality Particulate m;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineFermo, Paola Artinano, Begona De Gennaro, Gianluigi Pantaleo, Antonio Marco Parente, Alessandro Battaglia, Fiorella Colicino, Elena Di Tanna, Gianluca Goncalves da Silva Junior, Andouglas Pereira, Igor Gadelha Garcia, Gabriel Santos Garcia Goncalves, Luiz Marcos Comite, Valeria Miani, Alessandro eng Netherlands 2021/04/19 Environ Res. 2021 Jun; 197:111131. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111131. Epub 2021 Apr 15" |
