INDOOR AIR QUALITY OF SOME SOCIAL AREAS IN KONYA CITY CENTER, TURKEY

Indoor activities, building characteristics and outdoor climatic conditions have all affected indoor environment air quality. Some peoples, especially young and unemployed persons spend on about 90 % of their times indoor environment. Indoor air quality has direct effect on human health. One of the most important parameter for indoor air quality is particulate matter (PM2.5). Therefore, determination of personal exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) in these areas especially in café is predicted to be key role. Long exposure to particulate matters may lead to numerous diseases. In this study, particulate matter was determined in different social areas at the morning and evening for 30-sec. intervals during 15 minutes. Study area is heavily urbanized by a lot of buildings and also surrounded by roads with intensive traffic circulation. It was concluded from this study that some parameters such as ventilation, people circulation, ceiling height, construction shape and floor level have affected the measured concentration of particulate matter. The analyses have evaluated by personal Particle Meter equipment. Different conditions of the cafes for the PM values are also evaluated. Maximum and minimum PM2.5 concentrations were obtained as 3.485 µg/m3 for a Hubble-Bubble Cafe and 23 µg/m3 for a Book Store. Numbers of obtained data were found to be higher than the EPA’s standards for indoor environment. EPA established that PM concentration should be lower than 20 mg/m3 for indoors. Turkey has only outdoor air quality limitations for PM10 which is about 150 µg/m3 for long exposure and 300 µg/m3 for short exposur