Ottawa School Indoor Air Quality Study Metals Dataset

In Fall of 2013, Health Canada conducted an indoor air quality study in 4 schools located near major roads in Ottawa, ON. At each school, a range of air pollutants were monitored both indoors and outdoors for 32 consecutive school days under both baseline conditions and intervention conditions. The intervention assessed how changing the timing of high ventilation periods impacted indoor air quality in schools. Among the different pollutants measured, 33 elemental components of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) were analyzed in samples collected over 8 hours using X-ray fluorescence method. This dataset presents the descriptive statistics obtained as part of this study, stratified by intervention status and sampling environment, and is intended to provide relevant Canadian data on exposure to elemental composition of PM found in and around schools.