S. Alm et al., PERSONAL EXPOSURES OF PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN TO CARBON-MONOXIDE - ROLES OF AMBIENT AIR-QUALITY AND GAS STOVES, Atmospheric environment, 28(22), 1994, pp. 3577-3580
Personal 1 h mean CO exposures of preschool children in two day care c
enters (Toolo and Vallila) in Helsinki were measured with continuously
recording personal exposure monitors. In Vallila, the median CO expos
ure of children from homes with gas stoves was 2.0 mg m(-3), and with
electric stoves, 0.9 mg m(-3). In Toolo, the corresponding values were
1.9 and 1.0 mg m(-3), respectively. The national ambient air quality
guidelines for CO in Finland were exceeded in a few-percent of the exp
osure measurements. The results were compared to fixed-site ambient ai
r monitoring data and related to the presence of town-gas fired stoves
in the children's homes. The results show that fixed-site ambient air
monitors are of little value in predicting personal exposures of chil
dren or even their relative differences between areas. They also show
that town-gas fired stoves may have a profound effect on the CO exposu
res of the children.