Caractérisation des particules générées par la combustion d'encens

The increasing interest for potential health effects of nanoparticles justifies to assess human exposure in various environment. The NANOP project aims at characterising nanoparticle levels and their spatial and temporal variations in a simulated residential environment. Nanoparticles emitted by a single incense stick burning during fifteen minutes were characterised, measuring number concentration, specific surface and mass, and determining chemical composition. Nearby the burning incense stick (in the living room), the maximum number concentration was 28 800 particles cm-3; the indoor PM2.5 concentration reached 197 µg m-3, and the maximal specific surface concentration was 180 µm2 cm-3. The estimated incense smoke density was 1.1 g cm-3. The c-ToF-AMS measurements showed that the organic fraction was dominating.