Assessing some criticalities of particulate matter exposure in an urban context

The aim of this study was to monitor the exposure of various urban public places (a church, passenger car and bus) to a range of particle matter (PM) sizes and to evaluate the indoor air quality (IAQ). The authors assessed the causes of IAQ and highlighted the role of human activities in particulate matter concentrations. PM was measured using a GRIMM analyser 1.108. The preliminary measurements of average concentrations obtained for PM10, PM2.5 and PM1.0 revealed that during a church service the values were 56 μg m−3, 36.4 μg m−3 and 32.8 μg m−3 respectively; the values for the public transport were in the ranges of 24.4–51.7 μg m−3, 10–18.5 μg m−3, and 8.3–12.2 μg m−3, respectively. The concentrations measured during the passenger car test revealed that when the A/C is switched on, the levels of PM are even half of those reached in the off mode.