The exposure of children to PM2.5 and dust in indoor and outdoor school classrooms in Kuala Lumpur City Centre

It is important to assess indoor air quality in school classrooms where the air quality may significantly influence school children's health and performance. This study aims to determine the concentrations of PM2.5 and dust chemical compositions in indoor and outdoor school classroom located in Kuala Lumpur City Centre. The PM2.5 concentration was measured from 19th September 2017-16th February 2018 using an optical PM2.5 sensor. Indoor and outdoor dust was also collected from the school classrooms and ion and trace metal concentrations were analysed using ion chromatography (IC) and inductively couple plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) respectively. This study showed that the average indoor and outdoor 24 h PM2.5 was 11.2 +/- 0.45 mu g m(-3) and 11.4 +/- 0.44 mu g m(-3) respectively. The 8 h PM2.5 concentration ranged between 3.2 and 28 mu g m(-3) for indoor and 3.2 and 19 mu g m(-3) for outdoor classrooms. The highest ion concentration in indoor dust was Ca2+ with an average concentration of 38.5 +/- 35.0 mu g g(-1) while for outdoor dust SO42- recorded the highest ion concentration with an average concentration of 30.6 +/- 9.37 mu g g(-1). Dominant trace metals in both indoor and outdoor dust were Al, Fe and Zn. Principle component analysis-multiple linear regression (PCA-MLR) demonstrated that the major source of indoor dust was road dust (69%), while soil dominated the outdoor dust (74%). Health risk assessment showed that the hazard quotient (HQ) value for non-carcinogenic trace metals was < 1 while the total cancer risk (CR) value for carcinogenic elements was below the acceptable limit for both indoor and outdoor dust through dermal and inhalation pathways, but not the ingestion pathway. This study suggests indoor contributions of PM2.5 concentrations are due to the activities of the school children while the compositions of indoor and outdoor dust are greatly influenced by the soil/earth source plus industrial and traffic contribution.