Personal Exposure Monitoring of Respirable Particulate Matter of University Students during Winter Season

Abstract

Abstract Respirable Particulate Matter (RPM) in indoor microenvironments (MEs) is a major concern due to its health impacts along with the fact that people spend, on average, 70-80 % indoor. Therefore, in this study the exposure of students to RPM was monitored and analysed on main campus of a University during university working hours. A set number of students were selected and their exposure to RPM was monitored. Basically, Particulate Mass Concentration (PMC) and Particle Number Count (PNC) was monitored and analysed. calibrated air pump with nylon cyclone (size separation) and Dylos DC 1100 Pro (improvised for portability) was used for this purpose. Besides personal exposure, the PMC and PNC were also monitored in most frequently identified microenvironments separately. The correlation between PNC and PMC was investigated. We found that for a student personal exposure, the mean concentration of RPM was 251 µg/m3 and the relationship between PNC and PMC of microenvironment was found to be significantly correlated.