CHARACTERIZATION OF OUTDOOR SUBMICRON PARTICLES AND SELECTED COMBUSTION SOURCES OF INDOOR PARTICLES

Environmental tobacco smoke, mosquito-coil smoke, and joss stick smoke are the major indoor combustion sources in Asian countries. Field eva luations of the size distributions of outdoor submicron particles and selected combustion sources of indoor particles were conducted in an a partment in Taipei urban area. The size distributions of submicron aer osols were determined by a high resolution particle sizer, which could measure the particles in the size range of 0.017-0.886 mu m. The part icle sizer contains a differential mobility analyser (TSI 3071) and a condensation particle counter (TSI 3022). The number concentrations of the indoor and outdoor submicron particles varied from 14,000 to 150, 000 cm(-3) and from 10,000 to 45,000 cm(-3), respectively. The changes of the size distributions and the number concentrations of submicron aerosols before, during, and after the aerosol generations were compar ed. The average number median diameters of environmental tobacco smoke , smoldering cigarettes, mosquito-coil smoke, joss stick smoke, the in door typical conditions, and the outdoor typical conditions were 0.090 0.085, 0.094, 0.084, 0.091 and 0.054 mu m, respectively. Regarding th e surface area-weighted size distributions, the average surface median diameters of these conditions were 0.229, 0.219, 0.282, 0.188, 0.224 and 0.221 mu m, respectively. In addition, the average volume median d iameters were 0.338, 0.332, 0.398, 0.289, 0.330 and 0.340 mu m, respec tively. These indoor combustion sources did generate a significant num ber of the ultrafine and submicron particles which have higher deposit ion probabilities in the respiratory tract. Further health evaluations of the submicron particles from these combustion sources are needed.