An Investigation of Indoor Air Quality in Rural Residential Houses in India - A Case Study

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a matter of public concern these days whereas air pollution is normally monitored outdoors as required under national air quality strategies. In consequence, much less is known about air pollution levels indoors. As 70% of the Indian population lives in villages in rural areas this study attempts to provide information about the present IAQ of rural residential homes in Agra (the city of the Taj Mahal), India, during 3 months of the rainy season from July to September 2003. Measurements were made in the living rooms of the homes and included CO, NO, NO2, SO2 and particulate matter (PM10). The results were analysed statistically and indoor concentrations were correlated with outdoor concentrations for all the houses. It was found that the average indoor concentration of CO was 1.8±0.4ppm, for NO it was 0.12±0.06ppm, for NO2 it was 0.09±0.02ppm, and for SO2 it was 0.06±0.01ppm whereas PM10 was found to be 0.0287ppm. It was seen that the indoor concentrations at all the houses of the 5 villages studied had a positive correlation with the outdoor concentrations but little of the variation indoors was due to outdoor sources. An activity schedule of inside and outside these homes was also prepared to see its influence on the concentrations of pollutants. As standards for indoor air were not available for the Indian conditions the results were compared with standards of other countries, which showed that they lay below permissible limits.