Investigation of indoor and outdoor air quality in a university campus during COVID-19 lock down period

Mansoor Ahmad Bhat; Fatma Nur Eraslan; Alaa Awad; Semra Malkoç; Özlem Özden Üzmez; Tuncay Döğeroğlu; Eftade O Gaga

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109176

Investigation of indoor and outdoor air quality in a university campus during COVID-19 lock down period

Build Environ. 2022 Jul 1:219:109176. doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109176. Epub 2022 May 18.

Authors

Mansoor Ahmad Bhat¹, Fatma Nur Eraslan¹, Alaa Awad¹, Semra Malkoç^{1

2}, Özlem Özden Üzmez¹, Tuncay Döğeroğlu¹, Eftade O Gaga^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Eskişehir Technical University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, 26555, Eskişehir, Turkey.
² Eskişehir Technical University, Environmental Research Center (ÇEVMER), 26555, Eskişehir, Turkey.

Abstract

The pandemic of COVID-19 currently shadows the world; the whole earth has been on an unprecedented lockdown. Social distancing among people interrupted domestic and international air traffic, suspended industrial productions and economic activities, and had various far-reaching and undetermined implications on air quality. Improvement in air quality has been reported in many cities during the lockdown. On March 22, 2020, the Turkish government enforced strict lockdown measures to reduce coronavirus disease transmission. This lockdown had a significant impact on the movement of people within the country, which resulted in a major drop in worldwide commercial activities. During this period, university campuses were emptied due to the transition to distance education. In this study, various air pollutants sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), ozone (O₃), fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), total bacteria, and total fungi were measured in different indoor environments at Eskişehir Technical University Campus in Eskişehir, Turkey during COVID-19 lock down period. Also, to calculate the indoor and outdoor ratios (I/O) of the pollutants, simultaneous outdoor measurements were also carried out. The average indoor SO_2, NO_2, O_3, and PM_2.5 concentrations in different indoor environments ranged between 2.10 and 54.58, 1.36-30.89, 12.01-39.05, and 21-94 μg/m³, respectively. The total number of bacteria and fungi ranged between 21.83-514.15 and 13.10-83.36 CFU/m³, respectively. Our study intends to give a glimpse to quantify the impact of a pandemic on air quality in different indoor environments in a university campus in Eskişehir, Turkey and calls for follow-up studies. Indoor concentrations were evaluated together with outdoor concentrations. In general, it can be said that the calculated I/O ratios for SO₂, NO₂, O₃, bacteria, and fungi were less than 1 in most indoor environments.

Keywords: Bioaerosols; CFU, Colony forming units; COVID-19 pandemic period; Gaseous & PM2.5 emissions; IMA, Index of microbial air contamination; Indoor air quality; Indoor outdoor ratios, I/O; NOx, Nitrogen oxide; Nitrogen dioxide, NO2; Ozone, O3; Particulate matter, PM; Sulfur dioxide, SO2; University campus.