Studies on personal exposure level of nitrogen dioxid

In case of housewives living in urban area

Abstract

An attempt was made to determine the factors influencing personal exposure levels of NO₂ for housewives living in urban area in two seasons, winter and summer.
NO₂ was measured with small passive sampler containing triethanolamine, and samplers were set for 24 hours at three points, they are: near the collar of volunteers (personal exposure level), near the TV in living room (in-door level) and near the porch of their houses (outdoor level).
The subjects recorded the times of spending cooking using gas appliances, using kitchen ventilator and unvented oil or gas heater, total of minutes of opening window, going out of home and so on.
There was an apparent increase in personal exposure level in case of unvented heater, although it did not marked increase by using cooking gas appliance.
Through these observations, we concluded that personal exposure lev el of NO₂ was strongly related to indoor NO₂ level, and factors influencing indoor NO₂ level seemed different between in winter and in summer, the biggest one was indoor pollution in the former and in the latter that was the level of outdoor environment.