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The Effects of Ventilation and Filtration on Indoor PM2.5 in Office Buildings in Four Countries
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8 2021
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Source: Build Environ. 200
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Alternative Title:Build Environ
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Description:Fine particulate matter (PM|) is an airborne pollutant associated with negative acute and chronic human health outcomes. Although the majority of PM| research has focused on outdoor exposures, people spend the majority of their time indoors, where PM| of outdoor origin can penetrate. In this work, we measured indoor PM| continuously for one year in 37 urban commercial offices with mechanical or mixed-mode ventilation in China, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We found that indoor PM| concentrations were generally higher when and where outdoor PM| was elevated. In India and China, mean workday indoor PM| levels exceeded the World Health Organization's 24-hour exposure guideline of 25 |g/m| about 17% and 27% of the time, respectively. Our statistical models found evidence that the operation of mechanical ventilation systems could mitigate the intrusion of outdoor PM|: during standard work hours, a 10 |g/m| increase in outdoor PM| was associated with 19.9% increase in the expected concentration of indoor PM| (|<0.0001), compared to a larger 23.4% increase during non-work hours (|<0.0001). Finally, our models found that using filters with ratings of MERV 13-14 or MERV 15+ was associated with a 30.9% (95% CI: -55.0%, +6.2%) or 39.4% (95% CI: -62.0%, -3.4%) reduction of indoor PM|, respectively, compared to filters with lower MERV 7-12 ratings. Our results demonstrate the potential efficacy of mechanical ventilation with efficient filtration as a public health strategy to protect workers from PM| exposure, particularly where outdoor levels of PM| are elevated.
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Pubmed ID:34366550
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC8336933
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Volume:200
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