We previously reported about our air quality intervention study in Detroit which showed that the use of portable air filtration units (PAFs) decreased 3-day average brachial systolic blood pressure by 3.2 mmHg. However, it was still unknown what kinds of indoor and outdoor PM2.5 sources were impacting the study subjects and how much outdoor PM2.5 infiltrated into indoor environments in the community.
So in this paper, we described the detailed chemical characterization of outdoor and indoor PM2.5 this community was exposed to during the study, the results of source apportionment modeling on the outdoor and indoor PM2.5 data, and how effectively commercially available PAFs were able to reduce indoor and outdoor PM2.5 source contributions. We reported that the infiltration of outdoor PM2.5 without any PAFs was about 79%. The use of HEPA-type and true HEPA air filtration was shown to reduce outdoor PM2.5 infiltration rates from 79% to 61% and 51%, respectively. Such reductions may be useful for protecting susceptible populations, including older adults and people with pre-existing diseases. Furthermore, when extreme air pollution events such as wildfires occur, PAFs may provide useful protection for larger portions of the population in affected areas.
Read more about the study here.
