Abstract
The present study is one of the first attempting to assess the problem of indoor air pollution in an urban village of the Indian capital, Delhi. Indoor air sampling was carried out for the period of Jan-May 1999, using an 8-stage cas cade impactor (Anderson sampler), at a constant flow rate of 1 CFM (28.31 I.min-1), with an impactor pre-sepa rator which cuts off particles larger than 10 μm in aerody namic diameter. Glass fibre filter papers were used for all sampling. Cascade impactor samples were digested in two fractions of PM10 viz. coarse (>2.1 μm) and fine (<2.1 μm). Total PM10 concentration, both coarse and fine, was measured. The samples collected were ana lysed for trace metals by atomic absorption spectrome try (AAS), using a model Philips PU-9200X. A consider able amount of the PM10 (both coarse and fine fractions) was found to be heavy metals, in addition the anions SO2- 4, NO - 3 were found in the indoor environment regard less of the level of indoor activity. Analyses of sulphate (SO2- 4) and nitrate (NO- 3) were carried out using a Hitachi U-2000 UV-VIS spectrophotometer.
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