Impacts of Household Coal Combustion on Indoor Ultrafine Particles—A Preliminary Case Study and Implication on Exposure Reduction

Zhihan Luo, Ran Xing, Wenxuan Huang, Rui Xiong, Lifan Qin, Yuxuan Ren, Yaojie Li, Xinlei Liu, Yatai Men, Ke Jiang, Yanlin Tian and Guofeng Shen
Additional contact information
Zhihan Luo: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Ran Xing: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Wenxuan Huang: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Rui Xiong: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Lifan Qin: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yuxuan Ren: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yaojie Li: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Xinlei Liu: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yatai Men: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Ke Jiang: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yanlin Tian: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Guofeng Shen: College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-11

Abstract: Ultrafine particles (UFPs) significantly affect human health and climate. UFPs can be produced largely from the incomplete burning of solid fuels in stoves; however, indoor UFPs are less studied compared to outdoor UFPs, especially in coal-combustion homes. In this study, indoor and outdoor UFP concentrations were measured simultaneously by using a portable instrument, and internal and outdoor source contributions to indoor UFPs were estimated using a statistical approach based on highly temporally resolved data. The total concentrations of indoor UFPs in a rural household with the presence of coal burning were as high as 1.64 × 10 5 (1.32 × 10 5 –2.09 × 10 5 as interquartile range) #/cm 3 , which was nearly one order of magnitude higher than that of outdoor UFPs. Indoor UFPs were unimodal, with the greatest abundance of particles in the size range of 31.6–100 nm. The indoor-to-outdoor ratio of UFPs in a rural household was about 6.4 (2.7–16.0), while it was 0.89 (0.88–0.91) in a home without strong internal sources. A dynamic process illustrated that the particle number concentration increased by ~5 times during the coal ignition period. Indoor coal combustion made up to over 80% of indoor UFPs, while in an urban home without coal combustion sources indoors, the outdoor sources may contribute to nearly 90% of indoor UFPs. A high number concentration and a greater number of finer particles in homes with the presence of coal combustion indicated serious health hazards associated with UFP exposure and the necessity for future controls on indoor UFPs.

Keywords: ultrafine particles; indoor coal combustion; number concentration; size distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5161/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5161/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5161-:d:800888

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().