Project E2Sleep19—Sleep quality and environmental factors: is there any link? Project E2Sleep—711030-IPL/2017/E2SLEEP/ESTeSL. UIDB/04349/2020+UIDP/04349/2020. UIDB/50017/2020+UIDP/50017/2020. ; This review aimed to provide an overview of the characterization of indoor air quality (IAQ) during the sleeping period, based only on real-life conditions' studies where, at least, one air pollutant was considered. Despite the consensual complexity of indoor air, when focusing on sleeping environments, the available scientific literature is still scarce and falls to provide a multipollutant' characterization of the air-breathing during sleep. This review, following PRISMA's approach, identified a total of 22 studies that provided insights into how IAQ is during the sleeping period in real life conditions. Most of the studies focused on carbon dioxide (77%), followed by particles (PM2.5, PM10, and ultrafine), and only 18% of the studies focused on pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and formaldehyde. Despite the high heterogeneity between studies (regarding the geographical area, type of surrounding environments, the season of the year, type of dwelling, bedrooms' ventilation, number of occupants), several air pollutants showed exceedances of the limit values established by guidelines or legislation, indicating that an effort should be made in order to minimize human exposure to air pollutants. For instance, when considering the air quality guideline of the World Health Organisation of 10 µg·m−3 for PM2.5, 86% of studies that focused on this pollutant registered levels above this threshold. Considering that people spend one-third of their day sleeping, exposure during this period may have a significant impact on the daily integrated human exposure, due to the higher amount of exposure time, even if this environment is characterized by lower pollutants' levels. Improving the current knowledge of air pollutants levels during sleep in different settings, as well as in different countries, will ...
E2Sleep Project 711030-IPL/2017/E2SLEEP/ESTeSL. ; This study aimed to provide a comprehensive characterization of the indoor air quality during the sleeping period of 10 couples at Lisbon dwellings, using a multi-pollutant approach, and to understand how the compliance with legislation and guidelines was to assure good indoor air quality. The assessment of indoor air quality was conducted in the cold season using real-time monitors during the sleeping period for comfort parameters (temperature and relative humidity) and air pollutants (carbon dioxide - CO2, carbon monoxide - CO, formaldehyde - CH2O, total volatile organic compounds - VOCs, and particulate matter - PM2.5 and PM10), together with an active sampling of bioaerosols (fungi and bacteria) before and after the sleeping period. Lower compliance (less than 50% of the cases) with the Portuguese legislation was found for temperature, CO2 (3440 ± 1610 mg m-3), VOCs (1.79 ± 0.99 mg m-3), and both bioaerosol types. In 70% of the cases, PM2.5 (15.3 ± 9.1 μg m-3) exceeded the WHO guideline of 10 μg m-3. All bedrooms presented air change rates above the recommended minimum value of 0.7 h-1, highlighting that a good indoor air quality during sleep is not guaranteed. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
AbstractThis study targets to determine the oxidative potential (OP) of fine aerosols in an urban-industrial area of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal) and, in addition, to identify which pollution sources may have an impact on the OP levels of fine aerosols. For this purpose, thirty samples were selected from a set of 128 samples collected over one year (Dec 2019-Nov 2020), based on the highest load for each source (both mass and %) previously assessed by source apportionment studies (using Positive Matrix Factorisation, a total of 7 different sources were identified: soil, secondary sulphate, fuel-oil combustion, sea, vehicle non-exhaust, vehicle exhaust and industry). The OP associated with the water-soluble components of PM2.5 was assessed using the dithiothreitol (DTT) method. The samples had a mean DTT activity (normalised to the mass) of 12.9 ± 6.6 pmol min− 1 µg− 1, ranging from 3.5 to 31.8 pmol min− 1 µg− 1. The DTT activity (normalised to the volume, $${\text{O}\text{P}}_{\text{V}}^{\text{D}\text{T}\text{T}}$$) showed to have a significant positive association with PM2.5 levels (R2 = 0.714). Considering that the mass contributions of the different sources to the PM2.5 levels were known, Spearman correlations were assessed and significant correlations were found between $${\text{O}\text{P}}_{\text{V}}^{\text{D}\text{T}\text{T}}$$ and three different sources: vehicle exhaust (ρ = 0.647, p-value = 0.001), fuel-oil combustion (ρ = 0.523, p-value = 0.012) and industry (ρ = 0.463, p-value = 0.018). Using a multiple linear regression analysis, these three sources were found to explain 82% of the variability in $${\text{O}\text{P}}_{\text{V}}^{\text{D}\text{T}\text{T}}$$, with vehicle exhaust being the most influential source.
Project Interreg Med REMEDIO. ; In urban areas, evidence from epidemiological and experimental studies show that traffic-related air pollution has adverse effects on respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Urban air pollution accounts for 3% of mortality from cardiopulmonary disease and 1% of mortality from acute respiratory infections in children under 5 years, worldwide. Therefore, disease and mortality associated with vehicle emissions represent a substantial challenge in public health. Source apportionment, using receptor models, is an essential tool to support the implementation of the European and Member States legislation on air quality and principally to reduce the impact of exposure to Air Particulate Matter (PM) on human health. This work was developed in the framework of the Interreg Med REMEDIO project and aims to assess the aerosol emission sources in an urban traffic site, located in the outskirts of Lisbon. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Clean air is a basic requirement of life (World Health Organization, 2010). The Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has been the object of several studies due to an increasing concern within the scientific community on the effects of indoor air quality upon health, especially as people tend to spend more time indoors than outdoors (Franck et al., 2011; Canha et al., 2010; WHO, 2010; Environmental Protection Agency, 2010; Saliba et al., 2009; Fraga et al., 2008; Fromme et al., 2007; Guo et al., 2004; Kosonen, 2004; Lee et al., 2002a; Lee et al., 2002b; Carrer et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2001; Li et al., 2001; Wilson & Spengler, 1996; Allen & Miguel, 1995; Jenkins et al., 1992; WHO, n.d.). The quality of air inside homes, offices, schools or other private and public buildings is an essential determinant of healthy life and people's well-being (WHO, 2010). People can be exposed to contaminants by inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact. In the past, scientists have paid much attention to the study of exposure to outdoor air contaminants, because they have realised the seriousness of outdoor air pollution problems. However, each indoor microenvironment has unique characteristics, determined by the local outdoor air, specific building characteristics and indoor activities (Pegas et al, 2010). Indeed, hazardous substances are emitted from buildings, construction materials and indoor equipment or due to human activities indoors (WHO, 2010; Carrer et al., 2002). Reports about buildings with air-related problems have received increasing attention since the 1970s (Spengler & Sexton, 1983; Hodgson, 1992). In an indoor environment, dust on floors and other surfaces contains minerals, metals, fibres from textiles, paper, and insulation material, particles from tobacco smoke, including polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAH's). For this reason, the indoor environment is cleaned to maintain an acceptable level of perceived cleanliness, to prevent surface degradation, to control potential risk of infection from microorganisms, and to control dust exposure in general (Wolkoff et al., 1998). All of these pollutants could cause significant damage to health globally (WHO, 2010).The IAQ in school buildings is expected to be a key role player in the assessment of the effects of the children personal exposure to air pollution as children spend at least a third of their time inside school buildings, that is, approximately seven or more hours a day in school (Almeida et al., 2010; EPA, 2010; Pegas et al., 2010; Wheeler et al., 2009; Ramachandran et al., 2005). Poor IAQ can affect scholarly performance and attendance (Daisey et al. 2003; Godoi et al. 2009). Hence, several studies about air quality in schools have recently been published (Goyal & Khare, 2009; Tippayawong et al., 2009; Fraga et al., 2008; Fromme et al., 2007; Hwang et al., 2006). Environmental asthma triggers commonly found in school buildings include respiratory viruses; cockroaches and other pests; mold resulting from excess moisture in the building; dander from animals in the classroom; and dander brought on the clothing from animals at home. Second-hand smoke and dust mites are other known environmental asthma triggers found in schools. Children with asthma may be affected by other pollutants from sources inside schools, such as unvented stoves or heaters and common products including chemicals, cleaning agents, perfumes, pesticides and sprays. Indoor Air Quality problems in schools may be even more serious than in other categories of buildings, due to higher occupant density and insufficient outside air supply, aggravated by frequent poor construction and/or maintenance of school buildings (Pegas et al., 2010). Schools are seen as particularly likely to have environmental deficiencies because chronic shortages of funding contribute to inadequate operation and maintenance of facilities (Mendell & Heath, 2005). Previous studies showed the poor indoor environmental quality at schools may be explained by: (1) insufficient ventilation in schools, specially in winter, (2) infrequently and not thoroughly cleaned indoor surfaces, and (3) a large number of students in relation to room area and volume, with constant re-suspension of particles from room surfaces (Janssen et al., 1999). Children constitute a sensitive group with higher risk than adults (Stranger et al., 2007a) because children are particularly vulnerable to pollutants due to their undeveloped airways (Stranger et al., 2007a; Mendell et al., 2005). Moreover, children have greater susceptibility to some environmental pollutants than adults, because they breathe higher volumes of air relative to their body weights and their tissues and organs are actively growing (Mendell & Heath, 2005). The effects of air pollution on children have been growing (Khan et al., 2007) and one of the consequences is the increase of the prevalence of allergic rhinitis (ISAAC, 1998). The chemical and microbiological parameters required by the Portuguese Legislation for IAQ monitoring purposes are: carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), formaldehyde (HCHO), volatiles organic compound (VOCs), bacteria and fungi (DL n.º 79/2006).
