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Indoor and Built Environment
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Longitudinal Study of Indoor Particulate Matter and its Relationship to Outdoor Concentrations in New Delhi, India

Sumeet Saksena

The East-West Center, Honolulu, USA, saksenas{at}eastwestcenter.org

R. Uma

The Energy and Research Institute, New Delhi, India

Current models used to estimate the health effects and burden of outdoor urban air pollution assume a strong day-to-day correlation between outdoor and indoor concentration of the pollutant(s) of interest. Studies of indoor—outdoor relationships, based on a day-to-day longitudinal design, in developing countries have been rare. Our study is a comparatively long longitudinal study conducted over three and a half years. Indoor levels of Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) and Respirable Suspended Particulates (RSP), d50 = 10 µm, were measured in an office building and also just outside the building. The mean values of indoor TSP and RSP concentrations, though much higher than those observed in similar micro-environments in developed countries, were less than the outdoor concentrations but higher than the Indian ambient standards. However, while studies in developed countries (and in some developing countries) have observed strong longitudinal correlations between indoor and outdoor concentrations, the results of our study were contrary. The variation in outdoor concentration of RSP could explain only 25% of the variation in indoor concentration. Our results strongly support the belief that indoor— outdoor relationships cannot be generalized, but are strongly dependent on factors such as type of building, ventilation, climate among others.

Key Words: indoor air • indoor-outdoor relation • particulate matter • office • New Delhi

Indoor and Built Environment, Vol. 17, No. 6, 543-551 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1420326X08097294
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