title: Spatial and temporal variation of particulate matter characteristics within office buildings - The OFFICAIR study.
abstract: In the frame of the OFFICAIR project, office buildings were investigated across Europe to assess how the office workers are exposed to different particulate matter (PM) characteristics (i.e. PM2.5mass concentration, particulate oxidative potential (OP) based on ascorbate and reduced glutathione depletion, trace element concentration and total particle number concentration (PNC)) within the buildings. Two offices per building were investigated during the working hours (5 consecutive days; 8h per day) in two campaigns. Differences were observed for all parameters across the office buildings. Our results indicate that the monitoring of the PM2.5mass concentration in different offices within a building might not reflect the spatial variation of the health relevant PM characteristics such as particulate OP or the concentration of certain trace elements (e.g., Cu, Fe), since larger differences were apparent within a building for these parameters compared to that obtained for the PM2.5mass concentration in many cases. The temporal variation was larger for almost all PM characteristics (except for the concentration of Mn) than the spatial differences within the office buildings. These findings indicate that repeated or long-term monitoring campaigns are necessary to have information about the temporal variation of the PM characteristics. However, spatial variation in exposure levels within an office building may cause substantial differences in total exposure in the long term. We did not find strong associations between the investigated indoor activities such as printing or windows opening and the PNC values. This might be caused by the large number of factors affecting PNC indoors and outdoors.
authors.affiliation: Cooperative Research Centre for Environmental Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter stny. 1/A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address: tamas.szigeti@oki.antsz.hu.
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Szigeti
authors.affiliation: MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Health Impact of Environmental Hazards, King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, SE1 9NH London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dunster
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and High Technology, University of Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cattaneo
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and High Technology, University of Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spinazzè
authors.affiliation: Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB), Université Paris Est, 84 avenue Jean Jaurés, Champs-sur-Marne, F-77447 Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2, France.
authors.forename: Corinne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mandin
authors.affiliation: Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB), Université Paris Est, 84 avenue Jean Jaurés, Champs-sur-Marne, F-77447 Marne-la-Vallée Cedex 2, France.
authors.forename: Eline
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Le Ponner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Oliveira Fernandes
authors.affiliation: Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ventura
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, Sialvera & Bakola Street, 50100 Kozani, Greece.
authors.forename: Dikaia E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Saraga
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, Sialvera & Bakola Street, 50100 Kozani, Greece.
authors.forename: Ioannis A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Sakellaris
authors.affiliation: The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), P.O. Box 49, 2600 AA Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: de Kluizenaar
authors.affiliation: The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), P.O. Box 49, 2600 AA Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, Sialvera & Bakola Street, 50100 Kozani, Greece.
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Bartzis
authors.affiliation: MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Health Impact of Environmental Hazards, King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, SE1 9NH London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: frank.kelly@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Frank J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Kelly
keywords: Environmental health; Office building; Oxidative potential; PM(2.5); Particle number concentration; Spatial variation