Pub Date : 2025-03-27DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100090
Amanda M. Wilson , Ashley A. Lowe , Nana Adwoa A. Amoh-Asante , Yang Zhan , Ahamed Ashraf , Lynn B. Gerald
School health staff need decision support for responding to respiratory viral outbreaks. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) tools are an inexpensive and fast resource. Our objectives were to engage school districts to inform the development of a risk-based calculator tool, test the tool across hypothetical cases, and elicit feedback among school health staff. We administered an online survey for Kindergarten (K) - Grade 5 teachers, school health professionals, and other school staff to gather data about respiratory viral disease interventions and model parameters. A risk calculator tool was developed in which users choose hypothetical scenarios to estimate infection risk per individual and compare interventions. Three case studies (CS) were explored: CS1 – Rhinovirus transmission in a general education classroom with "poor" vs. "great" air quality, CS2 – Influenza A virus transmission in a music classroom with vs. without a portable air purifier, CS3 – SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a special education classroom with vs. without open doors/windows. The prototype tool was presented at a national school nursing meeting, and attendees were surveyed on (dis)likes and anticipated tool uses. For the initial survey of Arizona school personnel (n = 132), the top respiratory viral outbreak strategies reported by teachers were hand (94 %) and surface hygiene (85.1 %). For all case studies, infection risks were above thresholds used in other contexts but were comparable to published student respiratory illness incidence data. At the national meeting, school nurses (n = 12) identified potential uses including advocating for interventions to administrators. This work reflects a unique application of community partnership and QMRA to address school health decision support.
{"title":"School-informed risk calculator tool for reducing the spread of respiratory viral infection among school-aged children","authors":"Amanda M. Wilson , Ashley A. Lowe , Nana Adwoa A. Amoh-Asante , Yang Zhan , Ahamed Ashraf , Lynn B. Gerald","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100090","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100090","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>School health staff need decision support for responding to respiratory viral outbreaks. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) tools are an inexpensive and fast resource. Our objectives were to engage school districts to inform the development of a risk-based calculator tool, test the tool across hypothetical cases, and elicit feedback among school health staff. We administered an online survey for Kindergarten (K) - Grade 5 teachers, school health professionals, and other school staff to gather data about respiratory viral disease interventions and model parameters. A risk calculator tool was developed in which users choose hypothetical scenarios to estimate infection risk per individual and compare interventions. Three case studies (CS) were explored: CS1 – Rhinovirus transmission in a general education classroom with \"poor\" vs. \"great\" air quality, CS2 – Influenza A virus transmission in a music classroom with vs. without a portable air purifier, CS3 – SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a special education classroom with vs. without open doors/windows. The prototype tool was presented at a national school nursing meeting, and attendees were surveyed on (dis)likes and anticipated tool uses. For the initial survey of Arizona school personnel (n = 132), the top respiratory viral outbreak strategies reported by teachers were hand (94 %) and surface hygiene (85.1 %). For all case studies, infection risks were above thresholds used in other contexts but were comparable to published student respiratory illness incidence data. At the national meeting, school nurses (n = 12) identified potential uses including advocating for interventions to administrators. This work reflects a unique application of community partnership and QMRA to address school health decision support.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 2","pages":"Article 100090"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143768062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-24DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100087
Joan F. Rey , Dusan Licina , Joëlle Goyette Pernot
Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas, poses a significant health risk as prolonged exposure indoors can lead to lung cancer. Current radon measurement techniques vary widely in methodology, device types, and exposure duration, posing challenges to accurately evaluate and benchmark radon concentrations. To comprehensively assess the performance of various radon measurement techniques, we conducted measurements in 20 single-family homes across diverse geographical regions of Western Switzerland. We deployed multiple types of passive dosimeters and three grades of real-time sensors for periods extending up to one year. Our results reveal that long-term passive measurements were only marginally influenced by measurement duration, demonstrating the reliability of passive measurements shorter than one year. Cross-comparisons of real-time sensors revealed performance discrepancies, with medium- and consumer-grade sensors exhibiting errors of 10 % and 18 %, respectively, when compared to reference research-grade devices. Furthermore, comparison of consumer- and medium-grade sensors to 3-, 6- and 12-month passive measurements underlined their capability to monitor radon levels accurately, with errors typically below 20 %. These results were consistent with previous laboratory-based performance testing, highlighting similar real-life performance of real-time radon sensors. Our findings suggest that short-term passive measurements and low-cost real-time measurements could reliably replace traditional radon assessment methods. This paper provides new insights into the reliability and performance of radon measurement techniques over various time periods and real-life conditions.
{"title":"Performance evaluation of radon measurement techniques in single-family homes","authors":"Joan F. Rey , Dusan Licina , Joëlle Goyette Pernot","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100087","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100087","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Radon, a naturally occurring radioactive gas, poses a significant health risk as prolonged exposure indoors can lead to lung cancer. Current radon measurement techniques vary widely in methodology, device types, and exposure duration, posing challenges to accurately evaluate and benchmark radon concentrations. To comprehensively assess the performance of various radon measurement techniques, we conducted measurements in 20 single-family homes across diverse geographical regions of Western Switzerland. We deployed multiple types of passive dosimeters and three grades of real-time sensors for periods extending up to one year. Our results reveal that long-term passive measurements were only marginally influenced by measurement duration, demonstrating the reliability of passive measurements shorter than one year. Cross-comparisons of real-time sensors revealed performance discrepancies, with medium- and consumer-grade sensors exhibiting errors of 10 % and 18 %, respectively, when compared to reference research-grade devices. Furthermore, comparison of consumer- and medium-grade sensors to 3-, 6- and 12-month passive measurements underlined their capability to monitor radon levels accurately, with errors typically below 20 %. These results were consistent with previous laboratory-based performance testing, highlighting similar real-life performance of real-time radon sensors. Our findings suggest that short-term passive measurements and low-cost real-time measurements could reliably replace traditional radon assessment methods. This paper provides new insights into the reliability and performance of radon measurement techniques over various time periods and real-life conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 2","pages":"Article 100087"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143705884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-23DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100086
Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson , Rahaf Ajaj , Ahmed Al Khazraji , Latifa Al Shamsi , William P. Bahnfleth , Daniel Bonn , Katherine Bronstein , Rania Dghaim , Taher Eldanaf , Mohamed El Sadig , Moshood Olawale Fadeyi , Diana Francis , Grace Kilroy , Samrin Ahmed Kusum , Yuguo Li , Amal Mubarak Madhi , Mily Mathew , Shelly L. Miller , Jordan Peccia , Driss Samri , Fares H. Zaitoun MD
Clean indoor air is vital for health in all settings, especially in locations where extreme climates restrict outdoor activity, such as in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). UAE summer temperatures routinely exceed 42°C (108°F), discouraging outdoor activity and limiting natural ventilation of structures. Yet, little research is available on indoor air quality in the UAE. To inform the design of a new indoor air quality program, the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre commissioned a study to characterize and prioritize knowledge gaps on indoor air quality and its relationship to health in the UAE and to identify potential partners for the program. Research gaps and priorities were identified by a panel of 16 international and local indoor air quality experts through a two-day structured, in-person workshop and follow-up survey. Key partners were identified through a stakeholder mapping exercise and e-mail survey of 79 government agencies and nongovernment organizations. The expert panel concluded that the most important short-term research need is to characterize the major sources of indoor air pollution and the most frequently occurring pollutants. The panel recommended establishing a national indoor air quality observatory encompassing a wide range of settings, including residences, schools, mosques, healthcare facilities, shopping malls, and other public spaces. Indoor air quality monitors would be permanently placed to establish baseline indoor air quality, provide data to estimate source contributions, and enable tracking of changes over time. The stakeholder mapping exercise identified ten agencies that should be involved in planning, including the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, Department of Health–Abu Dhabi, Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, and Emirates Public Health Association. While focused on the UAE, the methods and research priorities in this study may be useful for planning indoor air quality improvement campaigns in other high-income nations.
{"title":"An indoor air pollution research strategy for the United Arab Emirates","authors":"Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson , Rahaf Ajaj , Ahmed Al Khazraji , Latifa Al Shamsi , William P. Bahnfleth , Daniel Bonn , Katherine Bronstein , Rania Dghaim , Taher Eldanaf , Mohamed El Sadig , Moshood Olawale Fadeyi , Diana Francis , Grace Kilroy , Samrin Ahmed Kusum , Yuguo Li , Amal Mubarak Madhi , Mily Mathew , Shelly L. Miller , Jordan Peccia , Driss Samri , Fares H. Zaitoun MD","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100086","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100086","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Clean indoor air is vital for health in all settings, especially in locations where extreme climates restrict outdoor activity, such as in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). UAE summer temperatures routinely exceed 42°C (108°F), discouraging outdoor activity and limiting natural ventilation of structures. Yet, little research is available on indoor air quality in the UAE. To inform the design of a new indoor air quality program, the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre commissioned a study to characterize and prioritize knowledge gaps on indoor air quality and its relationship to health in the UAE and to identify potential partners for the program. Research gaps and priorities were identified by a panel of 16 international and local indoor air quality experts through a two-day structured, in-person workshop and follow-up survey. Key partners were identified through a stakeholder mapping exercise and e-mail survey of 79 government agencies and nongovernment organizations. The expert panel concluded that the most important short-term research need is to characterize the major sources of indoor air pollution and the most frequently occurring pollutants. The panel recommended establishing a national indoor air quality observatory encompassing a wide range of settings, including residences, schools, mosques, healthcare facilities, shopping malls, and other public spaces. Indoor air quality monitors would be permanently placed to establish baseline indoor air quality, provide data to estimate source contributions, and enable tracking of changes over time. The stakeholder mapping exercise identified ten agencies that should be involved in planning, including the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, Department of Health–Abu Dhabi, Environment Agency–Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, and Emirates Public Health Association. While focused on the UAE, the methods and research priorities in this study may be useful for planning indoor air quality improvement campaigns in other high-income nations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 2","pages":"Article 100086"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143785583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-23DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100089
Frédéric Thevenet , Florent Caron , Vincent Gaudion , Mélanie Nicolas , Marie Verriele
To save energy, passive drying is encouraged by environmental agencies. Depending on seasons, climates and dwellings, laundry drying is performed indoors. Passive laundry drying is an indoor practice with high cultural variability. This work provides real-scale experimental data on water transfer to indoor environment and thermal impacts of laundry drying on rack. Representative laundries and drying practices are defined to validate a full-scale experimental methodology. Laundry and drying scenarios are explored using the 40-m3 experimental room IRINA. Among typical cotton and polyester laundries, cotton is selected as clothing of interest, with ca. 2000 g of water to be evaporated for specific laundry scenario. The simultaneous monitoring of water mass loss from laundry rack and humidity over the drying period allows for determination of water emission rate from laundry. During the first 2-hours of drying, water emission rate exceeds 100 g h−1 (maximum 360 g h−1.) Three different emission regimes over time are discussed in terms of water concentration gradient at the air and laundry interface. Consequences on indoor temperature are quantitated over drying. Initial relative humidity of indoor environment impacts the kinetics of water transfer and drives the thermal impacts: temperature drops from 0.5 to 3.8 °C are recorded. Based on these full-scale hygrothermal data, the impact of laundry drying on indoor thermal comfort is discussed. Two indoor comfort scenarios allow for assessing the magnitude of the impact of laundry drying. This work provides full-scale methodology with hygrothermal experimental datasets and a new insight on an impactful indoor practice.
为了节约能源,被动式干燥受到环保机构的鼓励。根据季节、气候和住所的不同,洗衣是在室内进行的。被动式洗衣烘干是一种具有高度文化可变性的室内实践。本研究提供了洗衣架干燥过程中水向室内环境传递和热影响的真实实验数据。代表性的洗衣和干燥实践定义,以验证一个全面的实验方法。使用40立方米的实验房间IRINA来探索洗衣和烘干场景。在典型的棉和聚酯洗衣店中,棉花被选为感兴趣的衣服,大约2000 克的水被蒸发用于特定的洗衣场景。同时监测洗衣架的水质量损失和干燥期间的湿度,可以确定洗衣的水排放率。干燥前2小时,出水量大于100 g h−1(最大360 g h−1)。根据空气和洗衣界面的水浓度梯度,讨论了三种不同的随时间的排放制度。过度干燥对室内温度的影响是定量的。室内环境初始相对湿度影响水传递动力学并驱动热影响:记录到0.5 ~ 3.8°C的温度下降。在此基础上,讨论了衣物烘干对室内热舒适的影响。两个室内舒适场景允许评估洗衣烘干的影响程度。这项工作提供了全面的方法与湿热实验数据集和一个有影响力的室内实践的新见解。
{"title":"Indoor laundry drying: Full-scale determination of water emission rate and impact on thermal comfort","authors":"Frédéric Thevenet , Florent Caron , Vincent Gaudion , Mélanie Nicolas , Marie Verriele","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100089","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100089","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To save energy, passive drying is encouraged by environmental agencies. Depending on seasons, climates and dwellings, laundry drying is performed indoors. Passive laundry drying is an indoor practice with high cultural variability. This work provides real-scale experimental data on water transfer to indoor environment and thermal impacts of laundry drying on rack. Representative laundries and drying practices are defined to validate a full-scale experimental methodology. Laundry and drying scenarios are explored using the 40-m<sup>3</sup> experimental room IRINA. Among typical cotton and polyester laundries, cotton is selected as clothing of interest, with ca. 2000 g of water to be evaporated for specific laundry scenario. The simultaneous monitoring of water mass loss from laundry rack and humidity over the drying period allows for determination of water emission rate from laundry. During the first 2-hours of drying, water emission rate exceeds 100 g h<sup>−1</sup> (maximum 360 g h<sup>−1</sup>.) Three different emission regimes over time are discussed in terms of water concentration gradient at the air and laundry interface. Consequences on indoor temperature are quantitated over drying. Initial relative humidity of indoor environment impacts the kinetics of water transfer and drives the thermal impacts: temperature drops from 0.5 to 3.8 °C are recorded. Based on these full-scale hygrothermal data, the impact of laundry drying on indoor thermal comfort is discussed. Two indoor comfort scenarios allow for assessing the magnitude of the impact of laundry drying. This work provides full-scale methodology with hygrothermal experimental datasets and a new insight on an impactful indoor practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 2","pages":"Article 100089"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143698061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-21DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100084
Sherry WeMott , Grace Kuiper , Sheena E. Martenies , Matthew D. Koslovsky , William B. Allshouse , John L. Adgate , Anne P. Starling , Dana Dabelea , Sheryl Magzamen
Most air pollution epidemiology studies rely on outdoor exposure data from various sources, such as reference monitors, low-cost monitors, models, or Earth observations. However, people spend 90 % of their time indoors, with 70 % of that time spent at home, which may result in misclassification of air pollution exposure when using data reflecting ambient concentrations. In this study, we evaluated methods to predict residential indoor black carbon (BC) from outdoor BC, PM2.5, and housing characteristics to support future efforts in estimating personal air pollution exposure. Households from the Healthy Start cohort in Denver, CO hosted paired indoor/outdoor low-cost air samplers for one-week periods during spring 2018, summer 2018, and winter 2019. Participants completed questionnaires about housing characteristics like building type, flooring, and heating and cooling methods. Filters were analyzed for BC using transmissometry. Ridge, LASSO and ordinary least squares regression (OLS) techniques were used to build predictive models of indoor BC given the available set of covariates. Leave-one-out cross-validation was used to assess the predictive accuracy of each model. We hypothesized that Ridge and LASSO will obtain improved predictive performance over the OLS model due to regularization. A total of 27 households participated, with 39 paired measurements available after data cleaning. All winter data were excluded due to high variability and incomplete sampling times for outdoor measurements. Performance issues suggested insufficient weatherproofing of monitors for low temperatures. The Ridge regression showed the best predictive performance. The final inference model included outdoor PM2.5, hard floors, and the presence of pets in the home, accounting for approximately 28 % of the variability in indoor BC concentrations measured in participant homes. In the absence of indoor monitoring, household characteristics like flooring and the presence of pets can help predict indoor levels of BC.
{"title":"Evaluating statistical methods to predict indoor black carbon in an urban birth cohort","authors":"Sherry WeMott , Grace Kuiper , Sheena E. Martenies , Matthew D. Koslovsky , William B. Allshouse , John L. Adgate , Anne P. Starling , Dana Dabelea , Sheryl Magzamen","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100084","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100084","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Most air pollution epidemiology studies rely on outdoor exposure data from various sources, such as reference monitors, low-cost monitors, models, or Earth observations. However, people spend 90 % of their time indoors, with 70 % of that time spent at home, which may result in misclassification of air pollution exposure when using data reflecting ambient concentrations. In this study, we evaluated methods to predict residential indoor black carbon (BC) from outdoor BC, PM2.5, and housing characteristics to support future efforts in estimating personal air pollution exposure. Households from the Healthy Start cohort in Denver, CO hosted paired indoor/outdoor low-cost air samplers for one-week periods during spring 2018, summer 2018, and winter 2019. Participants completed questionnaires about housing characteristics like building type, flooring, and heating and cooling methods. Filters were analyzed for BC using transmissometry. Ridge, LASSO and ordinary least squares regression (OLS) techniques were used to build predictive models of indoor BC given the available set of covariates. Leave-one-out cross-validation was used to assess the predictive accuracy of each model. We hypothesized that Ridge and LASSO will obtain improved predictive performance over the OLS model due to regularization. A total of 27 households participated, with 39 paired measurements available after data cleaning. All winter data were excluded due to high variability and incomplete sampling times for outdoor measurements. Performance issues suggested insufficient weatherproofing of monitors for low temperatures. The Ridge regression showed the best predictive performance. The final inference model included outdoor PM<sub>2.5</sub>, hard floors, and the presence of pets in the home, accounting for approximately 28 % of the variability in indoor BC concentrations measured in participant homes. In the absence of indoor monitoring, household characteristics like flooring and the presence of pets can help predict indoor levels of BC.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 2","pages":"Article 100084"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143739152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-06DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100083
Yirong Yuan , Masanao Yajima , Jinho Lee , Katherine H. Walsh , Brenden Tong , Lauren Main , Lauren Bolton , M. Patricia Fabian
In the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, maintaining clean air in school classrooms has become critical for ensuring student health and safety. Air exchange rate (AER), which measures the number of air replacements in a room per hour, is a standard metric for assessing ventilation, with recommended targets provided by organizations worldwide. Installing comprehensive carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring in schools has expanded opportunities for automating AER estimation, but most schools have limited computational resources and analytical capacity. To address this, we developed a cost-effective and scalable method to estimate AER by leveraging end-of-school day carbon dioxide concentrations recorded with thousands of commercial sensors in classrooms. This method assumes well-mixed conditions and replicates the tracer gas technique, leveraging statistical machine learning and knowledge of classroom operations to automate AER calculations at the end of occupied periods. We analyzed data from 3206 sensors across 125 schools in a large urban school district in the Northeastern United States and identified 648,956 CO₂ decay curves over one school year. After applying data screening criteria, we calculated 323,776 AER values, averaging 84 values (SD = 40) per classroom. Calculated AER ranged from < 0.1–64 h−1, averaging 3.0 h−1 (SD = 2.9). The average AER in schools with central mechanical ventilation was 1.8 times higher than in schools without mechanical ventilation. The method is optimized to use parallel and high-performance computing resources, and calculates daily air exchange rates for an entire classroom over an academic school year in a few seconds, an entire school in a few minutes, and the entire school district in a few hours. To our knowledge, this is the largest deployment of commercial CO2 sensors in schools that publicly share data. The AER calculation method is scalable and efficient, and automates cleaning, selection, and processing of CO2 data from commercial sensors, with methods and code transferable to other schools collecting similar large-scale data.
{"title":"Estimating air exchange rates in thousands of elementary school classrooms using commercial CO2 sensors and machine learning","authors":"Yirong Yuan , Masanao Yajima , Jinho Lee , Katherine H. Walsh , Brenden Tong , Lauren Main , Lauren Bolton , M. Patricia Fabian","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100083","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100083","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, maintaining clean air in school classrooms has become critical for ensuring student health and safety. Air exchange rate (AER), which measures the number of air replacements in a room per hour, is a standard metric for assessing ventilation, with recommended targets provided by organizations worldwide. Installing comprehensive carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) monitoring in schools has expanded opportunities for automating AER estimation, but most schools have limited computational resources and analytical capacity. To address this, we developed a cost-effective and scalable method to estimate AER by leveraging end-of-school day carbon dioxide concentrations recorded with thousands of commercial sensors in classrooms. This method assumes well-mixed conditions and replicates the tracer gas technique, leveraging statistical machine learning and knowledge of classroom operations to automate AER calculations at the end of occupied periods. We analyzed data from 3206 sensors across 125 schools in a large urban school district in the Northeastern United States and identified 648,956 CO₂ decay curves over one school year. After applying data screening criteria, we calculated 323,776 AER values, averaging 84 values (SD = 40) per classroom. Calculated AER ranged from < 0.1–64 h<sup>−1</sup>, averaging 3.0 h<sup>−1</sup> (SD = 2.9). The average AER in schools with central mechanical ventilation was 1.8 times higher than in schools without mechanical ventilation. The method is optimized to use parallel and high-performance computing resources, and calculates daily air exchange rates for an entire classroom over an academic school year in a few seconds, an entire school in a few minutes, and the entire school district in a few hours. To our knowledge, this is the largest deployment of commercial CO<sub>2</sub> sensors in schools that publicly share data. The AER calculation method is scalable and efficient, and automates cleaning, selection, and processing of CO<sub>2</sub> data from commercial sensors, with methods and code transferable to other schools collecting similar large-scale data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 2","pages":"Article 100083"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143654835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Indoor air concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC) were determined in the living environments of German children and adolescents between 2014 and 2017 during the German Environmental Survey (GerES) V. Passive sampling on Tenax TA tubes over 7 days and subsequent thermodesorption/gas chromatographic analysis yielded concentrations of 61 compounds from the groups of alcohols, alkanes, aromatics, carboxylic acid esters, glycol ethers, halogenated hydrocarbons, siloxanes, and terpenes as well as a value for total VOC (TVOC). The most abundant single compounds were decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), limonene, α-pinene, butyl acetate, toluene, and 2-ethylhexanol, with geometric mean concentrations ranging between 12 and 4.5 µg/m³ . The guideline values established by the German Committee on Indoor Guidance Values (AIR) were exceeded in less than 1.3 % of participants when considered as a sum parameter for cyclic dimethylsiloxanes, monocyclic monoterpenes, bicyclic terpenes, C9-C14 alkanes, and xylenes. The concentrations of most compounds were lower in GerES V (2014/17) compared to the previous cycle GerES IV (2003/06). The concentrations of individual compounds showed moderate associations with exposure factors as identified from questionnaire data including the socio-economic status of the household, migration background, smoking status, the presence of wooden furniture, renovations in the test room, the age of the house, outdoor pollution (proximity to road traffic), as well as the age and sex of the participants.
{"title":"Exposure of children and adolescents to volatile organic compounds in indoor air: Results from the German Environmental Survey 2014–2017 (GerES V)","authors":"Annika Fernandez Lahore , Robert Bethke , Anja Daniels , Konrad Neumann , Stefan Ackermann , Nadine Schechner , Klaus-Reinhardt Brenske , Enrico Rucic , Aline Murawski , Marike Kolossa-Gehring , Wolfram Birmili","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100082","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100082","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Indoor air concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC) were determined in the living environments of German children and adolescents between 2014 and 2017 during the German Environmental Survey (GerES) V. Passive sampling on Tenax TA tubes over 7 days and subsequent thermodesorption/gas chromatographic analysis yielded concentrations of 61 compounds from the groups of alcohols, alkanes, aromatics, carboxylic acid esters, glycol ethers, halogenated hydrocarbons, siloxanes, and terpenes as well as a value for total VOC (TVOC). The most abundant single compounds were decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), limonene, α-pinene, butyl acetate, toluene, and 2-ethylhexanol, with geometric mean concentrations ranging between 12 and 4.5 µg/m³ . The guideline values established by the German Committee on Indoor Guidance Values (AIR) were exceeded in less than 1.3 % of participants when considered as a sum parameter for cyclic dimethylsiloxanes, monocyclic monoterpenes, bicyclic terpenes, C9-C14 alkanes, and xylenes. The concentrations of most compounds were lower in GerES V (2014/17) compared to the previous cycle GerES IV (2003/06). The concentrations of individual compounds showed moderate associations with exposure factors as identified from questionnaire data including the socio-economic status of the household, migration background, smoking status, the presence of wooden furniture, renovations in the test room, the age of the house, outdoor pollution (proximity to road traffic), as well as the age and sex of the participants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 1","pages":"Article 100082"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143591632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-03-01DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100080
Ruiji Sun , Stefano Schiavon , Gail Brager , Haiyan Yan , Thomas Parkinson
Correlational analysis, such as linear regression, does not imply causation. This paper introduces and applies a causal inference framework and a specific method, regression discontinuity, to thermal comfort field studies. The method utilizes policy thresholds in China, where the winter district heating policy is based on cities' geographical locations relative to the Huai River. The approximate latitude of the Huai River can be considered as a natural, geographical threshold, where cities near the threshold are quite similar, except for the availability of district heating in cities north of the threshold, creating a situation similar to a randomized experiment. Using the regression discontinuity method, we quantify the causal effects of the experiment treatment (district heating) on the physical indoor environments and subjective responses of building occupants. We found that mean indoor operative temperatures were 4.3 °C higher, and mean thermal sensation votes were 0.6 warmer due to the district heating. In contrast, using conventional correlational analysis, we demonstrate that the correlation between indoor operative temperature and thermal sensation votes does not accurately reflect the causal relationship between the two. We also show that the indoor operative temperature could be either positively or negatively correlated with occupants’ thermal satisfaction. However, we cannot conclude that increasing the indoor operative temperature in these circumstances will necessarily lead to higher or lower thermal satisfaction. This highlights the importance of causal inference methods in thermal comfort field studies and other observational studies in building science, where the regression discontinuity method might apply.
{"title":"Causal effects estimation: Using natural experiments in observational field studies in building science","authors":"Ruiji Sun , Stefano Schiavon , Gail Brager , Haiyan Yan , Thomas Parkinson","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100080","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Correlational analysis, such as linear regression, does not imply causation. This paper introduces and applies a causal inference framework and a specific method, regression discontinuity, to thermal comfort field studies. The method utilizes policy thresholds in China, where the winter district heating policy is based on cities' geographical locations relative to the Huai River. The approximate latitude of the Huai River can be considered as a natural, geographical threshold, where cities near the threshold are quite similar, except for the availability of district heating in cities north of the threshold, creating a situation similar to a randomized experiment. Using the regression discontinuity method, we quantify the causal effects of the experiment treatment (district heating) on the physical indoor environments and subjective responses of building occupants. We found that mean indoor operative temperatures were 4.3 °C higher, and mean thermal sensation votes were 0.6 warmer due to the district heating. In contrast, using conventional correlational analysis, we demonstrate that the correlation between indoor operative temperature and thermal sensation votes does not accurately reflect the causal relationship between the two. We also show that the indoor operative temperature could be either positively or negatively correlated with occupants’ thermal satisfaction. However, we cannot conclude that increasing the indoor operative temperature in these circumstances will necessarily lead to higher or lower thermal satisfaction. This highlights the importance of causal inference methods in thermal comfort field studies and other observational studies in building science, where the regression discontinuity method might apply.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 1","pages":"Article 100080"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143552335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-20DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100081
Chai Yoon Um , William W. Delp , Rowan C. Blacklock , Brett C. Singer
This paper reports on equipment and procedures that enable the application of the pulsed tracer method to study air movement, contaminant transport, and mixing in rooms. We use ethanol as a non-toxic tracer and a network of low-cost, fast response (2 s) metal oxide sensors to measure airborne concentrations at high frequency. The method was demonstrated in a 158 m3 room of the FLEXLAB facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with an overhead HVAC system with controllable supply airflow and temperature. The room was configured as a meeting space with 8 simulated occupants. The sensors were mounted in a 3 × 4 grid in the upper room (0.3 m from the 2.74 m ceiling), in the middle height of the room at 1.1–1.4 m, and at several locations 0.1–0.4 m from the floor. Vaporized ethanol was released in pulses of 20 s. Sensors were cross-calibrated in-situ to provide quantitative information about relative concentrations and exposures. Results show that the method provides quantitative information about air movement patterns and mixing. For example, mixing throughout the room took 3–4 min with high supply airflow at neutral temperature and 7.5–9 min with heated supply air provided at a lower rate. The test can be used to evaluate whether air movement from the occupied zone to the upper room is fast enough to achieve the extremely high air cleaning rates that are possible with upper room germicidal ultraviolet disinfection (GUV) systems under ideal mixing conditions.
{"title":"Demonstration of a novel tracer gas method to investigate indoor air mixing and movement","authors":"Chai Yoon Um , William W. Delp , Rowan C. Blacklock , Brett C. Singer","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100081","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100081","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper reports on equipment and procedures that enable the application of the pulsed tracer method to study air movement, contaminant transport, and mixing in rooms. We use ethanol as a non-toxic tracer and a network of low-cost, fast response (2 s) metal oxide sensors to measure airborne concentrations at high frequency. The method was demonstrated in a 158 m<sup>3</sup> room of the FLEXLAB facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with an overhead HVAC system with controllable supply airflow and temperature. The room was configured as a meeting space with 8 simulated occupants. The sensors were mounted in a 3 × 4 grid in the upper room (0.3 m from the 2.74 m ceiling), in the middle height of the room at 1.1–1.4 m, and at several locations 0.1–0.4 m from the floor. Vaporized ethanol was released in pulses of 20 s. Sensors were cross-calibrated in-situ to provide quantitative information about relative concentrations and exposures. Results show that the method provides quantitative information about air movement patterns and mixing. For example, mixing throughout the room took 3–4 min with high supply airflow at neutral temperature and 7.5–9 min with heated supply air provided at a lower rate. The test can be used to evaluate whether air movement from the occupied zone to the upper room is fast enough to achieve the extremely high air cleaning rates that are possible with upper room germicidal ultraviolet disinfection (GUV) systems under ideal mixing conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 1","pages":"Article 100081"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143487833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-05DOI: 10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100076
Motoya Hayashi , Sayaka Murata , Koki Kikuta
{"title":"Corrigendum to “Ventilation characteristics in a hospital where a COVID-19 outbreak occurred in the winter of 2020” [Indoor Environ. 2 (2025) 100065]","authors":"Motoya Hayashi , Sayaka Murata , Koki Kikuta","doi":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100076","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100076","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":100665,"journal":{"name":"Indoor Environments","volume":"2 1","pages":"Article 100076"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143155764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}