Indoor Air Quality Levels in Schools: Role of Student Activities and No Activities

This work describes a methodology for the definition of indoor air quality monitoring plans in schools and above all to improve the knowledge and evaluation of the indoor concentration levels of some chemical pollutants. The aim is to guide interventions to improve the health of students and exposed staff connected with the activities carried out there. The proposed methodology is based on the simultaneous study of chemical (indoor/outdoor PM2.5, NO2, CO2) and physical (temperature, humidity) parameters by means of automatic analyzers coupled with gaseous compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, formaldehyde and NO2) sampled by denuders. The important novelty is that all the data were collected daily in two different situations, i.e., during school activities and no-school activities, allowing us to evaluate the exposure of each student or person. The different behaviors of all the measured pollutants during the two different situations are reported and commented on. Finally, a statistical approach will show how the investigated compounds are distributed around the two components of combustion processes and photochemical reactions.