Air quality in indoor go-kart facilities in Germany.

Indoor go-kart driving and viewing is enjoyed by people of all ages. However, it may pose health hazards, especially for children, pregnant women, cardiovascular patients, and elderly individuals. Depending on the race length, for example, high concentrations of various contaminants may result in severe health problems. Therefore, this project investigated the Indoor Air Quality of eight indoor go-kart facilities. In general, karts that used regular fuel produced the highest concentrations of CO, benzene, TVOC, and BaP, with maximum levels up to 150 mg/m3 , 170 µg/m3 , 2690 µg/m3 , and 8.7 ng/m3 , respectively. As expected, the maximum CO concentrations at go-kart facilities that used liquid gas and electric karts (20 and <6 mg/m3 , respectively) were significantly lower than those at other facilities. The highest 95th percentile values for NO (2680 µg/m3 ) and NO2 (280 µg/m3 ) were measured for karts with liquid gas. The alkane, alkene, and cycloalkane groups, as well as benzene and the alkyl benzenes, were the predominant components of the measured TVOCs. Overall, owners of indoor go-kart tracks should ensure that the ventilation with regard to combustion products is optimally adapted in any case to reduce the levels of critical air pollutants.

Comparability of portable nanoparticle exposure monitors.

Five different portable instrument types to monitor exposure to nanoparticles were subject to an intensive intercomparison measurement campaign. Four of them were based on electrical diffusion charging to determine the number concentration or lung deposited surface area (LDSA) concentration of airborne particles. Three out of these four also determined the mean particle size. The fifth instrument type was a handheld condensation particle counter (CPC). The instruments were challenged with three different log-normally distributed test aerosols with modal diameters between 30 and 180 nm, varying in particle concentration and morphology. The CPCs showed the highest comparability with deviations on the order of only ±5%, independent of the particle sizes, but with a strictly limited upper number concentration. The diffusion charger-based instruments showed comparability on the order of ±30% for number concentration, LDSA concentration, and mean particle size, when the specified particle size range of the instruments matched the size range of the aerosol particles, whereas significant deviations were found when a large amount of particles exceeded the upper or lower detection limit. In one case the reported number concentration was even increased by a factor of 6.9 when the modal diameter of the test aerosol exceeded the specified upper limit of the instrument. A general dependence of the measurement accuracy of all devices on particle morphology was not detected.

Indoor air contamination during a waterpipe (narghile) smoking session.

The smoke of waterpipe contains numerous substances of health concern, but people mistakenly believe that this smoking method is less harmful and addictive than cigarettes. An experiment was performed in a 57 m3 room on two dates with no smoking on the first date and waterpipe smoking for 4h on the second date. We measured volatile organic compounds (VOC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), metals, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (e.g. NO), as well as particle mass (PM), particle number concentration (PNC) and particle surface area in indoor air. High concentrations were observed for the target analytes during the 4-h smoking event. The median (90th percentile) values of PM(2.5), PNC, CO and NO were 393 (737 microg/m(3)), 289,000 (550,000 particles/cm(3)), 51 (65 ppm) and 0.11 (0.13 ppm), respectively. The particle size distribution has a maximum of particles relating to a diameter of 17 nm. The seven carcinogenic PAH were found to be a factor 2.6 higher during the smoking session compared to the control day. In conclusion, the observed indoor air contamination of different harmful substances during a WP session is high, and exposure may pose a health risk for smokers but in particular for non-smokers who are exposed to ETS.