Indoor and Outdoor Measurements of Particulate Matter Concentrations: A Case Study Košice-Sever, Slovakia

Abstract An occurrence of indoor particulate matters largely depends on outdoor pollution and its transportation indoors as well as on the presence of indoor pollution sources. Pollutants can flow from outdoor to indoor or indoor to outdoor under various conditions e.g. contribution of indoor pollutants to outdoor (in rural location with biomass fuel used for cooking) or outdoor to indoor in urban locations. This study aims to carry out an experimental investigation of particulate matter (PM) concentrations, temperature, humidity and air velocity during three days in winter season in Košice-Sever, Slovakia. Values of outdoor PM10 concentrations ranged from 12.58 μg/m3 to 6,627.51 μg/m3. Extremely high concentrations of PM10 were found near the traffic. Outdoor mean value of PM2.5 (21.82 μg/m3) did not exceed a permissible value of 25 μg/m3. Overloads by PM10 concentrations denote almost 108% and 2,270%. The indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio was <1 for all fractions of particulate matters.