Preschool children health impacts from indoor exposure to PM2.5 and metals

To better understand the relation between children health and indoor air quality, we measured the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and 11 metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, lead, antimony, selenium, and zinc) from air samples taken during both winter and spring, and focused on urban and rural area kindergartens of the Upper Silesia Region, Poland, typified by the use of fossil fuels for power and heat purposes. We combined related inhalation intake estimates for children and health effects using separate dose-response approaches for PM2.5 and metals. Results show that impacts on children from exposure to PM2.5 was 7.5 min/yr, corresponding to 14 mu DALY/yr (DALY: disability-adjusted life years) with 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.3-164 min/yr, which is approximately 10 times lower than cumulative impacts from exposure to the metal components in the PM2.5 fraction of indoor air (median 76 min/yr; CI: 0.2-4.5 x 10(3) min/yr). Highest metal-related health impacts were caused by exposure to hexavalent chromium. The average combined cancer and non-cancer effects for hexavalent chromium were 55 min/yr, corresponding to 104 mu DALY/yr, with CI: 0.5 to 8.0 x 10(4) min/yr. Health impacts on children varied by season and across urban and rural sites, both as functions of varying PM2.5 metal compositions influenced by indoor and outdoor emission sources. Our study demonstrates the need to consider indoor environments for evaluating health impacts of children, and can assist decision makers to focus on relevant impact reduction and indoor air quality improvement.

Automated summary

This study measured the concentrations of PM2.5 and 11 metals in urban and rural kindergartens in the Upper Silesia Region, Poland. The results showed that the health impacts on children from exposure to PM2.5 were lower compared to the impacts from exposure to metals. The health impacts varied by season and site.