Indoor Air Quality in Areas of Different Exposure: An experimental study

Abha Lakshmi Singh^*1 and Saleha Jamal²

Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University,

Aligarh, 202002, Uttar Pradesh (India)

Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim University,

Aligarh, 202002, Uttar Pradesh (India)

*Corresponding Author Email: abhalakshmisingh@yahoo.com;Tel: 0571 - 2400789

Accepted 23 April, 2012

Abstract

The present study focuses on experimental study of indoor air quality regarding PM_10, PM_2.5, CO, CO₂, NO, NO₂, SO₂ in selected differently used areas. Cooking places (kitchen) at different locations using different types of cooking fuel used and living room were selected for the purpose of the measurements. For the purpose of pollutant monitoring 20 households for each having different types of kitchen using biomass fuels and LPG were selected. The indoor air quality of the living room of those households was also assessed for the purpose of comparison. The indoor environment was measured with handy portable samplers. Experimental results obtained shows that the indoor air quality of households cooking with biomass fuels is worse while the indoor air quality of the households using LPG was also found to be much above the prescribed guidelines especially in multipurpose room and in non-ventilated kitchen and on the other hand the indoor air quality of living room is little better but affected by kitchen emissions.

Keywords: Indoor air quality; pollution; indoor sources; PM; gaseous pollutants; indoor air monitoring