Indoor Air Quality in Domestic Environments during Periods Close to Italian COVID-19 Lockdown.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Pietrogrande MC
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8070062 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Indoor air quality has been the object of interest for scientists and specialists from the fields of science such as chemistry, medicine and ventilation system design. This results from a considerable number of potential factors, which may influence the quality of the broadly understood indoor air in a negative way. Poor quality of indoor air in various types of public utility buildings may significantly affect an increase in the incidence of various types of civilisation diseases. This paper presents information about a broad spectrum of chemical compounds that were identified and determined in the indoor environment of various types of public utility rooms such as churches, museums, libraries, temples and hospitals. An analysis of literature data allowed for identification of the most important transport paths of chemical compounds that significantly influence the quality of the indoor environment and thus the comfort of living and the health of persons staying in it.
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Project description:INTRODUCTION:Smoke-free air laws have been implemented in many Kentucky communities to protect the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure. The impact of different strengths of smoke-free air laws on indoor air quality was assessed. METHODS:Indoor air quality in hospitality venues was assessed in seven communities before and after comprehensive smoke-free air laws and in two communities only after partial smoke-free air laws. One community was measured three times: before any smoke-free air law, after the initial partial law, and after the law was strengthened to cover all workplaces and public places with few exemptions. Real-time measurements of particulate matters with 2.5 mum aerodynamic diameter or smaller (PM(2.5)) were obtained. RESULTS:When comprehensive smoke-free air laws were implemented, indoor PM(2.5) concentrations decreased significantly from 161 to 20 microg/m3. In one community that implemented a comprehensive smoke-free law after initially passing a partial law, indoor PM(2.5) concentrations were 304 microg/m3 before the law, 338 microg/m3 after the partial law, and 9 microg/m3 after the comprehensive law. DISCUSSION:The study clearly demonstrated that partial smoke-free air laws do not improve indoor air quality. A significant linear trend indicated that PM(2.5) levels in the establishments decreased with fewer numbers of burning cigarettes. Only comprehensive smoke-free air laws are effective in reducing indoor air pollution from secondhand tobacco smoke.
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Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic has put much of the world into lockdown, as one unintended upside to this response, the air quality has been widely reported to have improved worldwide. Existing studies examine the environmental effect of lockdowns at a city- or country-level, few examines it from a global perspective. Using a novel COVID-19 government response tracker dataset, combining the daily air pollution data and weather data across 597 major cities worldwide between January 1, 2020, and July 5, 2020, this study quantifies the causal impacts of 8 types of lockdown measures on changes of a range of individual pollutants based on a difference-in-differences design. The results show that the NO2 air quality index value falls more precipitously (23-37%) relative to the pre-lockdown period, followed by PM10 (14-20%), SO2 (2-20%), PM2.5 (7-16%), and CO (7-11%), but the O3 increases 10-27%. Furthermore, intra/intercity travel restrictions have a better performance in curbing air pollution. These results are robust to a set of alternative specifications, including different panel sizes, independent variables, estimation strategies. The heterogeneity analysis in terms of different types of cities shows that the lockdown effects are more remarkable in cities from lower-income, more industrialized, and populous countries. We also do a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the subsequent health benefits following such improvement, and the expected averted premature deaths due to air pollution declines are around 99,270 to 146,649 among 76 countries and regions involved in this study during the COVID-19 lockdown. These findings underscore the importance of continuous air pollution control strategies to protect human health and reduce the associated social welfare loss both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Project description:The detection of SARS-CoV-2 in indoor environments is a cause of increasing concern. In this study, three sampling methodologies have been used in order to collect SARS-CoV-2 and 17 other respiratory viruses in indoor air, combined with a new analytical process to analyze respiratory viruses. Different areas of an ophthalmological hospital were investigated for the presence of these airborne viruses. Moreover, indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters (carbon dioxide, CO2; carbon monoxide, CO; nitrogen dioxide, NO2; volatile organic compounds, VOCs; formaldehyde, HCHO; and particulate matter, PM) have been examined to study the relationship between IAQ and airborne viruses. All indoor air and surface samples assessed were found to be negative for SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, another airborne respiratory virus (HRV/ENV) was detected, illustrating that the methodology set out here is a suitable one. Regarding the results for the IAQ, chemical parameters studied in the hall and waiting room of the hospital presented acceptable values. However, in the doctor's consultation room VOCs and HCHO show some instantaneous levels higher than the recommended guide values. The methodological approach described in this paper, integrating conventional IAQ and the assessment of bioaerosols, can be used in research and control programs aimed at promoting a healthy indoor environment.
| S-EPMC8626032 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Introduction:Indoor air quality is one the main issues in which governments are focusing. In healing spaces, several research studies are reporting a growing number of data analysis and research works in order to guarantee and prevent health of users and workers. Currently the main investigations are about biological and physical risks; otherwise chemical ones are less investigated. Several countries are carrying out indoor air quality monitoring in those professional workplaces in which chemicals are used but also in some typically indoor (generic) spaces for the building hygiene assessment. The indoor air is affected by several factors that currently are analyzed punctually, without a whole scenario of all the variable performances. The authors have done a systematic review on the current state of the art and knowledge related to chemical pollution in healing spaces and the emerging strategies, supported by scientific literature, for healthy inpatient rooms and their indoor air. Methodology:The systematic review has been done through the analysis of papers from SCOPUS, DOAJ, and PubMed databases. The survey sample considered 483 scientific articles, between 1989 and 2017, and starting the systematic reading and analysis of the abstracts, only 187 scientific papers were selected, and only 96 were accessible. Discussion:Since scientific literature reports very different outputs and results, the resulting work from the survey is divided into specific fields of interest related to construction and finishing materials, installations, components, ventilation systems, processes, etc. Starting from the systematic reading, the paper classifies the factors of indoor air in four macroareas: outdoor air and microclimatic factors (temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, air change, etc.); management activities (management and maintenance activities, ventilation systems, HVAC, cleaning and disinfectant activities, etc.); design factors (room dimensions, furniture, finishing materials, etc.); and human presence and medical activities (users' presence, their health status, and medical activities carried out in inpatient rooms). Conclusion:The systematic review gives rise to a broad scenario on the existing knowledge regarding the indoor air pollution, design, and management strategies for healthy spaces and several emerging topics. Although the aim of the investigation is strictly related to chemical pollution, several considerations from the biological point of view have been listed. The systematic review, supported by the existing scientific literature, becomes a starting point for considering the importance of the topic and to stimulate the knowledge around this field of interest for improving studies, analysis, and simulations.
| S-EPMC6415317 | biostudies-other
Project description:The UK implemented a lockdown in Spring (2020) to curtail the person-to-person transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Measures restricted movements to one outing per day for exercise and shopping, otherwise most people were restricted to their dwelling except for key workers (e.g. medical, supermarkets, and transport). In this study, we quantified changes to air quality across the United Kingdom from 30/03/2020 to 03/05/2020 (weeks 14-18), the period of most stringent travel restrictions. Daily pollutant measurements of NO2, O3 and PM2.5 from the national network of monitoring sites during this period were compared with measurements over the same period during 2017-19. Comparisons were also made with predicted concentrations for the 2020 period from business-as-usual (BAU) modelling, where the contributions of normal anthropogenic activities were estimated under the observed meteorological conditions. During the lockdown study period there was a 69% reduction in traffic overall (74% reduction in light and 35% in heavy vehicles). Measurements from 129 monitoring stations, identified mean reductions in NO2 of 38.3% (-8.8 μg/m3) and PM2.5 of 16.5% (-2.2 μg/m3). Improvements in NO2 and PM2.5 were largest at urban traffic sites and more modest at background locations where a large proportion of the population live. In contrast, O3 concentrations on average increased by 7.6% (+4.8 μg/m3) with the largest increases at roadside sites due to reductions in local emissions of NO. A lack of VOC monitoring limited our capacity to interpret changes in O3 at urban background locations. BAU models predicted comparable NO2 reductions and O3 gains, although PM2.5 episodes would have been more prominent without lockdown. Results demonstrate the relatively modest contribution of traffic to air quality, suggesting that sustained improvements in air quality require actions across various sectors, including working with international and European initiatives on long-range transport air pollutants, especially PM2.5 and O3.
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Project description:In the whole world, most of the air polluted cities were normalized during the COVID-19 lockdown but after the lockdown, the air pollution is continuously increasing day by day. In the present study, we assessed the air quality at the selected sites of Jaipur city after the COVID-19 lockdown from October 2020 to February 2021 to quantify the enhancement in air pollution. The obtained data was processed using air quality index (AQI), principal component analysis (PCA) and pearson correlation matric (PCM). The obtained data were also compared with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Values of particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5) were found beyond the limits of NAAQS (100 µg/m3, 60 µg/m3) while the values of gaseous pollutant such as SO2, NO2, and CO was found below the limits of NAAQS (80 µg/m3, 80 µg/m3, 4.0 mg/m3). Based on AQI, air quality of site 1 (114.80) and site 2 (110.48) was found severely polluted while air quality of site 3 (70.47) was found moderately polluted. Based on PCA, the highest loading factor was declared to PM10 and the lowest loading factor was SO2. The study concludes that by adopting the control measures of particulate matter and periodical transport lockdown, air pollution can be minimised. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41324-022-00456-3.
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Project description:India enforced stringent lockdown measures on March 24, 2020 to mitigate the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronovirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, we examined the impact of lockdown on the air quality index (AQI) [including ambient particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and ammonia (NH3)] and tropospheric NO2 and O3 densities through Sentinel-5 satellite data approximately 1 d post-lockdown and one month pre-lockdown and post-lockdown. Our findings revealed a marked reduction in the ambient AQI (estimated mean reduction of 17.75% and 20.70%, respectively), tropospheric NO2 density, and land surface temperature (LST) during post-lockdown compared with the pre-lockdown period or corresponding months in 2019, except for a few sites with substantial coal mining and active power plants. We observed a modest increase in the O3 density post-lockdown, thereby indicating improved tropospheric air quality. As a favorable outcome of the COVID-19 lockdown, road accident-related mortalities declined by 72-folds. Cities with poor air quality correlate with higher COVID-19 cases and deaths (r = 0.504 and r = 0.590 for NO2; r = 0.744 and r = 0.435 for AQI). Conversely, low mortality was reported in cities with better air quality. These results show a correlation between the COVID-19 vulnerable regions and AQI hotspots, thereby suggesting that air pollution may exacerbate clinical manifestations of the disease. However, a prolonged lockdown may nullify the beneficial environmental outcomes by adversely affecting socioeconomic and health aspects.
| S-EPMC7590817 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study investigated the concentrations of air pollutants (NO, NO2, NOx, SO2, CO, O3, PM10, and PM2.5) at three sites with different traffic loads (work, residential, and traffic sites) before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects and associated potential pollution control implications of the lockdown on the quality of ambient air at three selected sites in the urban area of Riyadh City. The average concentrations of NO, NO2, NOx, and CO decreased during the lockdown period by 73%, 44%, 53%, and 32% at the work site; 222%, 85%, 100%, and 60% at the residential site; and 133%, 60%, 101%, and 103% at the traffic site relative to the pre-lockdown period, respectively. The average concentration of O3 increased by 6% at the work site, whereas the concentration of SO2 increased by 27% at the residential site and decreased by 6.5% at the work site. The changes in PM10 and PM2.5 varied and did not exhibit a clear pattern. The air quality index (AQI) results indicated that the contribution to "undesired" air quality by O3 was 35.29% of the lockdown period at the work site while contributions to undesired air quality by PM10 and PM2.5 were 75.6% and 100% at the work site, 94.5% and 100% at the residential site, and 96.7% and 100% at the traffic site, respectively. The findings of this study are useful for devising effective urban pollution abatement policies. Applying control measures comparable to the lockdown measures over one week will result in a decrease of approximately 19% and 15% in CO mean concentration and 25% and 18% in NO2 mean concentration at residential and traffic sites, respectively.
| S-EPMC8775798 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The human behavioral modification recommendations during wildfire events are based on particulate matter and may be confounded by the potential risks of gas-phase pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Moreover, the majority of adults spend over 90 percent of their time indoors where there is an increased concern of indoor air quality during wildfire events. We address these timely concerns by evaluating paired indoor and outdoor PAH concentrations in residential locations and their relationship with satellite model-based categorization of wildfire smoke intensity. Low-density polyethylene passive air samplers were deployed at six urban sites for 1 week in Eugene, Oregon with matched indoor and outdoor samples and 24 h time resolution. Samples were then quantitatively analyzed for 63 PAH concentrations using gas-chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. A probabilistic principal components analysis was used to reduce all 63 PAHs into an aggregate measure. Linear regression of the first principal component against indoor versus outdoor shows that indoor gas-phase PAH concentrations are consistently equal to or greater than outdoor concentrations. Regression against a satellite-based model for wildfire smoke shows that outdoor, but not indoor gas-phase PAH concentrations are likely associated with wildfire events. These results point toward the need to include gas-phase pollutants such as PAHs in air pollution risk assessment.
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