Diagnosis of indoor air contaminants in a daycare center using a long-term monitoring

Recently, indoor air quality control is becoming important in Korea due to social concerns about health effects. Contaminants in the air can deteriorate indoor air quality and negatively affect the health of infants and toddlers in daycare centers. Also, with the COVID-19 spread, the outbreak of infectious diseases in daycare centers is another airborne threat to young children. In closed spaces, air contaminants such as PM10 can be used as potential containers to transmit indoor infectious matters. Since young children have immature immunity, indoor air contaminant controls are significant to support a healthy indoor air environment. Accordingly, the government of Korea has enhanced indoor air quality control regulations and recommendations, but on-site evaluation of daycare centers is still not sufficient to provide systematic knowledge of the indoor air contaminants. Therefore, this study monitored a daycare center in the metropolitan area and then diagnosed the occurrence and correlations of indoor air contaminants. The results of this study verified that many hours still exceeded the maximum air quality criteria in the daycare center, which were mostly found during the daytime. Also, correlations between indoor air contaminants were varying depending on outdoor air conditions. The findings of this study are expected to be used to improve a healthy indoor environment and ensure air safety in daycare centers. •This study investigated the indoor air contaminants in a daycare center.•The indoor air quality should be improved to meet the legal requirement and recommendations.•Heterogeneous correlations of air contaminants would be changed by the environmental condition changes.•The continuous efforts to reduce air contaminant risks are significant in the daycare centers.