Dr. Cristina Paunescu (from the Faculty of Pharmacy of Paris) and al. published a few days ago, in Indoor Air papers, the results of a large field study for particles pollution measurements. A study very rare in its ambition for statistically relevant data acquisition! A cohort of 96 children, aged 9 and living in Paris and suburbs, was gathered to monitor the ultrafine particles and black carbon they breathed over 24 hours of their everyday life, with portable sensors of scientific quality. The results are revealing : school and home are the places where children are the most exposed.
School and home are the places where children are the most exposed
The results are summarized below and show how we vastly underestimate where is most of the air pollution we breathe.
- Home and school together account for much of the total exposure: around 85% for both black carbon and ultrafine particles
- Home alone weights around 60% of daily exposure, due to the number of hours spent there by kids
Measurements also show that cooking is a major source of exposure to air pollution: do not forget to ventilate your place when cooking.
- Even if highest concentrations of pollution are met during trips (especially metro/train and bus), this exposure is short time and amounts for around 12% of daily exposure
Home is a place you should be concerned about air quality since air pollution threatens your children
Next step of this study is to try correlating asthma with exposure to this pollution. Results expected one year from now. Stay tuned but be patient!