Particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in indoor and outdoor microenvironments in Boston, Massachusetts

Estimating personal exposures to air pollution is a crucial component in identifying high-risk populations and determining efficient control strategies. Because of the difficulty of comprehensively measuring personal exposure, data on air pollution patterns in homogenous microenvironments linked with activity data are often used as surrogates. In this study, we focus on strengthening the available information about nonresidential microenvironmental exposures to particulate matter and other combustion pollutants. During the summer of 2000, we measured ultrafine particles, fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) outdoors and in indoor microenvironments in Boston, Massachusetts. In indoor microenvironments averaged across sample days, mean ultrafine particle concentrations ranged from 3800 to 140,000 particles/cm3, with 7–200 μg/m3 of PM2.5 and 5–12 ng/m3 of particle-bound PAH. PM2.5 indoor–outdoor ratios generally exceeded 1 in settings with high levels of human activity, with lower ratios for ultrafine particles. Cooking activities contributed significantly to elevated levels of all three pollutants. Using Linear Mixed Effects models with AR-1 autoregressive correlation structures, 10-min average outdoor concentrations were generally weak predictors of indoor levels, with stronger relationships in an apartment without mechanical ventilation than in air-conditioned nonresidential settings. Although further study would be needed to determine whether these patterns could be generalized beyond the monitored sites, these data support previous findings and enhance our knowledge about nonresidential exposure patterns.