Inner City Indoor Air

BrooklynDodger posts this abstract as a not quite random sample of indoor air exposures in inner city dwellings, almost all row houses. This informs population studies of health effects of outdoor air pollution.

The houses were recruited because there was a kid with asthma living there, but there were no control kids or houses. BrooklynDodger could imagine the asthma houses were worse, but it’s safer to think these are random.

There’s a table about house observations: most kitchens had dishes in the sink [as in BrooklynDodger’s domicile]; there was lot of water intrusion; 20% dogs, 26% cats…Mice droppings were found in 38% of kitchens. [Occasionally in BD’s domicile, but not every day.]

About 75% of the PM mass is PM 2.5 [BrooklynDodger expects most of this is really PM 1.0]. The 25th percentile PM 2.5 exceeded the EPA 24-hour average limit of15 ug/M3. BrooklynDodger expects that a lot of the excess over outdoor measured PM is indoor smoking, although rooftop vs. street level may also contribute. The investigators noted that PM levels were higher in the evening.

Regarding allergens:

“The most commonly detected allergen was mouse, found in all the bedroom samples and in 99% of kitchen samples. Cockroach, dog, and cat allergens were also common, while house dust mite was less common. The predominant house dust mite allergen, Der f 1, was detected in 59% of bedroom samples, but the median concentration was only 66 ng/g. Mouse allergen was also found in large quantities, with a median concentration in bedroom dust (3659 ng/g) that was an order of magnitude higher than cat or dog allergen. Median concentrations of cockroach allergen were highest in the kitchen (22 U/g), followed by the living room (median 5.2 U/g) and bedroom (4.5 U/g).”


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Environmental Research 98 (2005) 167–176
Indoor exposures to air pollutants and allergens in the homes of asthmatic children in inner-city Baltimore
Patrick N. Breyssea,_, Timothy J. Buckleya, D’Ann Williamsa, Christopher M. Becka,
Seong-Joon Joa, Barry Merrimanb, Sukon Kanchanaraksac, Lee J. Swartzd, Karen
A. Callahand, Arlene M. Butzd, Cynthia S. Randb, Gregory B. Dietteb, Jerry A. Krishnanb,
Adrian M. Moseleye, Jean Curtin-Brosnand, Nowella B. Durkind, Peyton A. Egglestond
aDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street Room W6010A, Baltimore,
MD 21205, USA
bDepartment of Pulmonary Medicine, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
cDepartment of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
dDepartment of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
eThe Johns Hopkins Health System, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
…
This paper presents indoor air pollutant concentrations and allergen levels collected from the homes of 100 Baltimore city asthmatic children participating in an asthma intervention trial... Dust allergen samples were collected from the child’s bedroom, the family room, and the kitchen. The mean PM10 concentration, 56.5 ug/m3… the PM2.5 concentration … 45.1ug/m3. … Smoking households’ average PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations are 33–54 mg/m3 greater than those of nonsmoking houses, with each cigarette smoked adding 1.0 mm/m3 to indoor PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations. Large percentages of NO2 and O3 samples, 25% and 75%, respectively, were below the limit of detection. The mean NO2 indoor concentration is 31 ppb, while the mean indoor O3 concentration in the ozone season was 3.3… ppb. …