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Indoors is not a refuge: iron-ore port emitted PM2.5 accumulates inside a naturally ventilated tropical home
J M Lana1, I O Silva2, C I Yamamoto1
1Chemical Engineering Department, Federal University of Paraná, 81531-980, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Abstract:
Iron ore logistics generates fugitive PM2.5 emissions that penetrate adjacent urban environments, yet their infiltration into naturally ventilated tropical residences remains poorly characterized. We investigate indoor-outdoor PM2.5 dynamics near the Tubarão Port Complex (Vitória, Brazil) through a 170-day paired campaign (May-October 2019, n = 114 valid pairs). Two vertically separated sites (P1 outdoor at 2 m; P2 indoor at 17 m, 160 m apart) define the Elevated Accumulation Ratio (EAR = Cindoor/Coutdoor) as a relative accumulation index; because Black Carbon shows the opposite vertical behavior (EAR_BC = 0.70), the observed EAR >1 is interpreted as a conservative lower bound on indoor accumulation rather than a height artefact. Mean PM2.5 was 7.33 μg m-3 indoors and 5.78 μg m-3 outdoors (Wilcoxon p < 0.001; median EAR = 1.25; ≈66 % of pairs exceeding unity). APCA identified vehicular emissions as dominating outdoor mass (63.6 %; confirmatory solution, KMO = 0.77); the exploratory indoor solution (KMO = 0.62, n = 38) indicated indoor air governed by port-associated sources, secondary sulfate (38.3 %), and soil resuspension (27.5 %). Geochemical profiling identified Fe/Si decoupling, confirming an industrial origin distinct from local ferrolaterite soils. Screening-level USEPA health risk assessment yielded a Cr-driven excess lifetime cancer risk of 4.5 × 10-6 under a realistic 15 % Cr (VI) assumption (cumulative ELCR including Co and Ni: approximately 9.2 × 10-6), rising to 3.0 × 10-5 under a conservative 100 % Cr (VI) worst-case scenario (cumulative: 3.5 × 10-5, below the 10-4 ceiling under all scenarios evaluated). At this receptor, static buffer zones showed limited effectiveness under the coastal wind fields observed, indicating that mitigation should be adaptively modulated by real-time meteorology; confirmation across multiple dwellings is required before generalizing to port-adjacent tropical residences.
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