Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality In and Around a High School in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, California (Invited)

In an effort to better understand conditions affecting air quality in and around ARISE High School in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, CA, we made particulate matter concentration measurements at a variety of indoor and outdoor locations. Outdoor measurements were made along an east-west transect that began at a local freeway (I-880) and traversed a major thoroughfare (International Boulevard). Preliminary analysis of our data indicates that levels of smaller particles (less than or equal to 0.3 microns in diameter) in indoor air were twice as high as levels measured outdoors on a given day. However, values for all other particle sizes (0.5, 2, 5 and 10 microns) were lower in air found indoors than those obtained outdoors. We also observed that average concentration levels were higher at intersections with higher volumes of traffic. In addition, we observed that particle counts were significantly higher when trains passed along a train line located near our transect.