Using sulfur as a tracer of outdoor fine particulate matter

Six homes in the metropolitan Boston area were sampled between 6 and 12 consecutive days for indoor and outdoor particle volume and mass concentrations, particle elemental concentrations, and air exchange rates (AERs). Indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios of nighttime (i.e., particle nonindoor source periods) sulfur, PM2.5 and the specific particle size intervals were used to provide estimates of the effective penetration efficiency. Mixed models and graphical displays were used to assess the ability of the I/O ratios for sulfur to estimate corresponding I/O ratios for PM2.5 and the various particle sizes. Results from this analysis showed that particulate sulfur compounds were primarily of outdoor origin and behaved in a manner that was representative of total PM2.5 in Boston, MA. These findings support the conclusion that sulfur can be used as a suitable tracer of outdoor PM2.5 for the homes sampled in this study. Sulfur was more representative of particles of similar size (0.06-0.5 microm), providing evidence that the size composition of total PM2.5 is an important characteristic affecting the robustness of sulfur-based estimation methods.