A study on indoor air quality and photochemical pollution in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

Indoor and outdoor concentrations of photochemical pollutants and various trace species included nitrous and nitric acids were measured in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. During the measurement period the indoor levels of ozone were typically 40% - 60% of those outdoors. The concentrations of HONO measured during the campaign ranged from 2.6 to 7.3 ppb whereas the concentrations of HNO3 ranged from 0.02 to 0.7 ppb. NO2 was measured by chemiluminescence and the results compared to those obtained by using a recently developed denuder technique. The study shows that chemical reactions occurring indoors are complex and can affect the distribution among indoor pollutants. The application of a single-box model suggests that one might expect a substantial contribution of the reaction of NO2 and O3 to the HNO3 indoor level and that isoprene, a body effluent, could generate OH radical by reaction with ozone, at a rate comparable to penetration from outdoors.