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Morantes G, Jones B, Molina C, Sherman MH. Harm from Residential Indoor Air Contaminants. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2024; 58:242-257. [PMID: 38150532 PMCID: PMC10785761 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2023] [Revised: 11/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 12/29/2023]
Abstract
This study presents a health-centered approach to quantify and compare the chronic harm caused by indoor air contaminants using disability-adjusted life-year (DALY). The aim is to understand the chronic harm caused by airborne contaminants in dwellings and identify the most harmful. Epidemiological and toxicological evidence of population morbidity and mortality is used to determine harm intensities, a metric of chronic harm per unit of contaminant concentration. Uncertainty is evaluated in the concentrations of 45 indoor air contaminants commonly found in dwellings. Chronic harm is estimated from the harm intensities and the concentrations. The most harmful contaminants in dwellings are PM2.5, PM10-2.5, NO2, formaldehyde, radon, and O3, accounting for over 99% of total median harm of 2200 DALYs/105 person/year. The chronic harm caused by all airborne contaminants in dwellings accounts for 7% of the total global burden from all diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giobertti Morantes
- Department
of Architecture and Built Environment, University
of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K.
| | - Benjamin Jones
- Department
of Architecture and Built Environment, University
of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K.
| | - Constanza Molina
- Escuela
de Construcción Civil, Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile, Avenida Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, Santiago 7820436, Chile
| | - Max H. Sherman
- Department
of Architecture and Built Environment, University
of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K.
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Zuazua-Ros A, de Brito Andrade L, Dorregaray-Oyaregui S, Martín-Gómez C, Ramos González JC, Manzueta R, Sánchez Saiz-Ezquerra B, Ariño AH. Crosscutting of the pollutants and building ventilation systems: a literature review. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023; 30:66538-66558. [PMID: 37121949 PMCID: PMC10149636 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-27148-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/17/2023] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Considering the time spent in enclosed environments, it is essential to study the relationship between pollutants and building ventilation systems to find whether the types and levels of pollutants and greenhouse gasses, which are expected to be exhaled through ventilation systems into the atmosphere, have been adequately evaluated. We propose the hypothesis that the exhaled air from residential buildings contains pollutants that may become another source of contamination affecting urban air quality and potentially contributing to climate drivers. Thus, the main goal of this article is to present a cross-review of the identification of pollutants expected to be exhaled through ventilation systems in residential buildings. This approach has created the concept of "exhalation of buildings" a new concept enclosed within the research project in which this article is included. We analyze the studies related to the most significant pollutants found in buildings and the studies about the relation of buildings' ventilation systems with such pollutants. Our results show that, on the one hand, the increase in the use of mechanical ventilation systems in residential buildings has been demonstrated to enhance the ventilation rate and generally improve the indoor air quality conditions. But no knowledge could be extracted about the corresponding environmental cost of this improvement, as no systematic data were found about the total mass of contaminants exhaled by those ventilation systems. At the same time, no projects were found that showed a quantitative study on exhalation from buildings, contrary to the existence of studies on pollutants in indoor air.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amaia Zuazua-Ros
- Department of Construction, Building Services and Structures, Universidad de Navarra, Campus Universitario, 31009, Pamplona, Spain
| | - Leonardo de Brito Andrade
- Department of Rural Engineering, Center of Agrarian Sciences, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Rodovia Admar Gonzaga 1346, Florianópolis, SC, 88034-000, Brazil.
| | - Sara Dorregaray-Oyaregui
- Department of Construction, Building Services and Structures, Universidad de Navarra, Campus Universitario, 31009, Pamplona, Spain
| | - César Martín-Gómez
- Department of Construction, Building Services and Structures, Universidad de Navarra, Campus Universitario, 31009, Pamplona, Spain
| | - Juan Carlos Ramos González
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials, Thermal and Fluids Engineering Division, Universidad de Navarra, Paseo de Manuel Lardizábal 13, 20018, San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Robiel Manzueta
- Department of Construction, Building Services and Structures, Universidad de Navarra, Campus Universitario, 31009, Pamplona, Spain
| | - Bruno Sánchez Saiz-Ezquerra
- Department of Construction, Building Services and Structures, Universidad de Navarra, Campus Universitario, 31009, Pamplona, Spain
| | - Arturo H Ariño
- Department of Environmental Biology, Universidad de Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, 31008, Pamplona, Spain
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Season, Vegetation Proximity and Building Age Shape the Indoor Fungal Communities’ Composition at City-Scale. J Fungi (Basel) 2022; 8:jof8101045. [PMID: 36294610 PMCID: PMC9605656 DOI: 10.3390/jof8101045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Revised: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Exposure to particular microbiome compositions in the built environment can affect human health and well-being. Identifying the drivers of these indoor microbial assemblages is key to controlling the microbiota of the built environment. In the present study, we used culture and metabarcoding of the fungal Internal Transcribed Spacer ribosomal RNA region to assess whether small-scale variation in the built environment influences the diversity, composition and structure of indoor air fungal communities between a heating and an unheated season. Passive dust collectors were used to collect airborne fungi from 259 dwellings representative of three major building periods and five building environments in one city—Lausanne (Vaud, Switzerland)—over a heating and an unheated period. A homogenous population (one or two people with an average age of 75 years) inhabited the households. Geographic information systems were used to assess detailed site characteristics (altitude, proximity to forest, fields and parks, proximity to the lake, and density of buildings and roads) for each building. Our analysis indicated that season was the factor that explained most of the variation in colonies forming unit (CFU) concentration and indoor mycobiome composition, followed by the period of building construction. Fungal assemblages were more diverse during the heating season than during the unheated season. Buildings with effective insulation had distinct mycobiome compositions from those built before 1975 — regardless of whether they were constructed with pre-1945 technology and materials or 1945 — 1974 ones. The urban landscape—as a whole—was a significant predictor of cultivable Penicillium load—the closer the building was to the lake, the higher the Penicillium load—but not of fungal community composition. Nevertheless, the relative abundance of eleven fungal taxa detected by metabarcoding decreased significantly with the urbanization gradient. When urban landscape descriptors were analyzed separately, the explanatory power of proximity to vegetation in shaping fungal assemblages become significant, indicating that land cover type had an influence on fungal community structure that was obscured by the effects of building age and sampling season. In conclusion, indoor mycobiomes are strongly modulated by season, and their assemblages are shaped by the effectiveness of building insulation, but are weakly influenced by the urban landscape.
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