Exploring Airborne Pollutants in Fitness Environments: Implications for Health and Exercise

Abstract

As there are many known benefits of physical activities practising, the need to evaluate pollution levels and personal exposure in different sports environments has become increasingly important. However, the current data are limited, namely those related to exposure levels during different types of sports activities. Thus, this study estimated indoor air levels and inhalation doses of gaseous (total volatile organic compounds – TVOCs, CO₂) and particulate (PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and ultrafine – 20-1000 nm) pollutants during highly–intense (spinning, dance fitness, and total body workout - TBW) and moderately–intense (body & mind, muscle group-specific and self-defence techniques) groups activities (n = 138). Inhalation dose was assessed using the USEPA methodology, considering different age categories of practitioners (3 – <61 years old) and genders. The results showed that CO₂ concentrations ranged from 1368 mg/m³ (in TBW) -2727 mg/m³ (self-defence-adults), with the protection threshold being exceeded in adult self-defence classes. TVOCs exceeded 4–18 times the protective limits in all classes (2.49 mg/m³ in body & mind – 10.62 mg/m³ in self-defence adults). Across different characterized activities, PM values widely varied (PM₁₀: 20.8–220.8 µg/m³; PM_2.5: 9.1–63.5 µg/m³; UFP: 6267–9917 #/cm³) with especially PM₁₀ higher during vigorous human movements; 1.1–4.4 and 1.1–2.5 times exceeding the protective threshold for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5, respectively. High-intensity classes resulted in 1.4–1.6 times higher inhalation doses than moderate-intensity classes and the total inhaled dose for men was higher (1–8% in high- and moderate-intensity, respectively) than for women. Finally, the inhaled doses by the child population were up to 2.2 times higher than of adults of both genders. It needs to be emphasized that inhaled dose values indirectly indicate the possible health risk to which users are exposed in terms of pollutant intake (particulate matter and gaseous pollutants), combining exposure concentration, physical effort and duration of activity.