Environmental and Toxicology Management 2 (2022) 14-19 Contents lists available at journal2.unusa.ac.id Environmental and Toxicology Management journal homepage: www.journal2.unusa.ac.id/etm Indoor air quality and the resident’s health complaints after eruption of Mount Sinabung, In- donesia Yenni Gustiani Tarigan 1,* , Agnes Ferusgel 2 , Baxter Hepburn Kachingwe 3 1 Pharmacy and Health Sciences Faculty, Sari Mutiara Indonesia University, Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia 2 Public Health Counselors, Karang Rejo Community Health Centers, Balikpapan, Kalimantan 3 Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Blantyre, Malawi Abstract The purpose of this study was to measure the concentration of exposure to indoor particulate matter (PM 1 , PM 2.5 , PM 10 ), CO 2 , RH, and temperature and to evaluate public health complaints due to volcanic ash after the eruption of Mount Sinabung. A correlation analytic was assessed with a cross sectional approach at Payung, Gurukinayan and Perbesi villages from April to July 2021. The level of particles (PM 1 , PM 2.5 , PM 10 ), CO 2 , temperature and humidity were measured by the AS-LUNG type 0019 instrument, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Respondents’ health complaints were evaluated by interviewing respondents using questionnaires. The Mann Whitney U test was used to analyze the diferences levels of particles in the area zone. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was used to evaluate the efect between the concentrations of particulate matter exposure on respondents’ health complaints. The results showed that the mean concentration of exposure to PM 1 , PM 2.5 , PM 10 in Perbesi and Gurukinayan villages was above maximum level required by Indonesia indoor air quality guideline No. 1077 while CO 2 was still below the maximum level required. According bivariate test, there was a signiőcant diference in particle concentration between three villages (p-value = 0.00) and in particle concentration between area zone (p-value = 0.00). The MANCOVA test showed that exposure to PM 1 , PM 2.5 , PM 10 , CO 2 , RH, and temperature has an efect on eye complaints (p-value <0.05), exposure to PM 1 , PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and RH (p-value <0.05) has an efect on respiratory complaints, and exposure to PM10 (p-value <0.05) has an efect on skin diseases. Keyword : Exposure, particulate matter, health complaints, eruption, ashes 1 Introduction Mount Sinabung is one of the Stratovolcano Mountains lo- cated in Karo Regency, about 25 miles from Lake Toba on Suma- tra Island, North Sumatra, Indonesia (Gunawan et al., 2019; Afni- mar et al., 2022). Mount Sinabung is one of two active volcanoes, one of which is Mount Sibayak (Tampubolon et al., 2022; Prase- tyo et al., 2018). The peak of Mount Sinabung has a height of 2,460 m or about 8071 feet (Program, 2021). Sinabung volcano experi- enced its őrst conőrmed Holocene eruptions during August and September 2010 (Primulyana et al., 2019). A new eruptive phase began continuing into mid-2018 where the volcano remained calm from September 2013 (Lowenstern et al., 2022). The growth and de- struction of the dome resulted in block avalanches, multiple explo- sions with clumps of ash, and lethal pyroclastic ŕows during that period. After a lull in activity from September 2018 to April 2019, explosions occurred again during May and June 2019 (Lerner et al., 2022). The frequent eruptions of the Sinabung volcano led to hun- dreds of block avalanches and dozens of ash-laden explosions re- ported every month during March to mid-May 2021. *Corresponding Author. Email Address : yenni@sari-mutiara.ac.id https://doi.org/10.33086/etm.v2i3.3462 Received from 8 September 2022; Received in revised 27 November 2022; Accepted 28 November 2022; Available online 26 December 2022; The status of the mountain is still on alert to this day so that the rise and fall of volcanic activity causes problems for local refugees by evacuating people from their homes to refugee camps (Barclay et al., 2019). This is what causes a very large distribution of ashes in Karo Regency so that it can result in the possibility of high con- centrations of dust particles in residential areas which can have a negative impact on public health such as respiratory complaints, so people are advised to wear masks when leaving the house. Each burst of volcanic ash will produce very high concentrations of par- ticulate matter in a very short time and can cause very őne parti- cles to ŕoat in the air for quite a long time (Pearson and Brooker, 2020). This can cause health problems for people living in the area around the radius of the volcanic eruption because volcanic ash contains very bad chemical compounds that can threaten humans such as silica dioxide (SiO 2 ) 54%, aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) 18.37%, ferri oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ) 18,59%, and potassium oxide (CaO) (Oudin, Carlsen, Forsberg, & Johansson, 2013). In addition, volcanoes gen- erally also emit water vapor (H 2 O), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ),hydrochloric acid (HCl), hydroŕuoric acid (HF) and others into the atmosphere (Bubach et al., 2020). Several studies have investigated whether volcanic ash from mountains may increase pollutant concentrations, so that it can afect health, especially the acute respiratory system such as asthma and brief efects of exposure (Zabert et al., 2020). An edito- rial study also said an increase the number of patients who came to the emergency department during ash fall occurred with respi- ratory complaints, such as cardiovascular efects, upper and lower respiratory tract, and eye complaints were the most signiőcant to 14