Investigation of indoor air quality at residential houses in Agra, India - a case study

摘要

Indoor air quality (IAQ) has been a matter of public concern, whereas air pollution is routinely monitored outdoors as part of an obligation under the National Air Quality Strategy and much less is known about levels of air pollution indoors. This study attempts to provide information about the present IAQ of residential homes in Agra (the city of Tajmahal, India) located in three different locations that are rural, urban and roadside during three months of the winter season from November 2002 to January 2003. Air pollutants measured in the living rooms of the homes in this study included CO, CO_2, NO_2, NO and SO_2. On comparing the 8 hourly average concentration of pollutants between the houses of three locations it was found that CO and CO2 was maximum in roadside houses (3.44 +- 0.8 ppm) and (493.4 +- 27 ppm) respectively, whereas NO and NO_2 concentration was maximum in the urban houses (0.31 +- 0.02 ppm) and (0.19 +- 0.09 ppm) respectively. The SO_ was maximum in the rural houses (0.02 +- 0.001 ppm). An actively schedule of these homes was also prepared to see its influence on concentrations of pollutants. As standards for indoor air are not available for the Indian conditions these were compared with the known standards of other countries, which shows that they lie below permissible limits.