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Concurrently Measured Concentrations of Atmospheric Mercury in Indoor (household) and Outdoor Air of Basel, Switzerland
journal contribution
posted on 2020-03-19, 15:38 authored by Lena Wohlgemuth, David McLagan, Benjamin Flückiger, Danielle Vienneau, Stefan OsterwalderIndoor
air pollution can be a major health risk because urban populations
spend up to 90% of their time in closed rooms. Gaseous elemental mercury
(GEM) has not been measured as routinely as other indoor air pollutants
due to the high costs and limited mobility of active Hg analyzers.
However, household GEM concentrations may exceed Hg air quality guidelines
as a result of potential indoor GEM sources like broken Hg thermometers.
Here we deploy novel low-cost mercury passive air samplers (MerPAS)
in 27 households (7 days) and at 14 outdoor locations (29–31
days) in Basel, Switzerland. Average Hg concentrations ranged from
2.0 to 10.8 ng m–3 indoors and from 1.8 to 2.5 ng
m–3 outdoors. These results reveal that households
are a net source of Hg to the urban atmosphere and exceed outdoor
Hg levels by a factor of 2 on average. We estimated an average weekly
intake rate of 0.01 μg of Hg/kg of body weight for adult residents
in Basel, which is usually lower than Hg exposure of people with dental
amalgam fillings. Our campaign demonstrates that air monitoring programs
can easily be complemented by straightforward Hg measurements using
MerPAS.
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household GEM concentrations0.01 μ gOutdoor Airair samplersHg thermometersintake ratebody weightHg air quality guidelinesHg levelsAtmospheric Mercuryair monitoring programsamalgam fillingshealth riskHg measurementsHg exposureair pollutantsAverage Hg concentrationsGEM sourcesair pollutionadult residentsHg analyzers
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