Particulate Matter Monitoring and Assessment through Internet of Things: a Health Information System for Enhanced...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Public Health
• Engineering

Background:

• Indoor air quality (IAQ) significantly impacts human health and well-being, with particulate matter (PM) posing a critical threat.
• In 2016, PM exposure led to over 412,000 premature deaths across 41 European countries, highlighting the urgent need for effective monitoring solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and present an affordable, modular, scalable, and easily installable health information system for monitoring indoor particulate matter.
• To demonstrate the system's connectivity via ThingSpeak and its applicability in diverse building types requiring only power and internet access.

Main Methods:

• Development of a cost-effective particulate matter monitoring system.
• Installation and testing of the system for one week in a domestic kitchen environment featuring an open fireplace.
• Utilizing ThingSpeak for data connectivity and analysis.

Main Results:

• The system successfully monitored particulate matter (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10) in an indoor environment.
• Biomass burning from the open fireplace significantly impacted indoor air quality, with daily mean values for PM10 ranging from 20.1 to 90.69 μg/m³.
• Peak hourly PM10 concentrations reached up to 132.13 μg/m³.

Conclusions:

• Continuous monitoring using cost-effective sensors provides valuable, consistent data for analyzing indoor air quality trends, despite not matching industrial equipment accuracy.
• The developed system offers a practical solution for enhanced living environments by enabling accessible indoor air quality monitoring.