Health Effects and Exposure Assessment to Bioaerosols in Indoor and Outdoor Environments

Health Effects and Exposure Assessment to Bioaerosols in Indoor and Outdoor Environments

Author: Ewa Brągoszewska

Publisher: Mdpi AG

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 9783036522647

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Air pollution, due to natural and anthropogenic sources, incurs enormous environmental costs. The issue of healthy living spaces and good air quality is a global concern, because each individual inhales 15,000 L of air every 24 h. Thus, contemporary monitoring and reducing exposure to air pollutants presents a particular challenge. One of the crucial indicators of indoor and outdoor air quality is bioaerosols. They play an instrumental role as risk factors when it comes to adverse health outcome. These indicators, also known as primary biological airborne particles (PBAPs), have been linked to various health effects such as infectious diseases, toxic effects, allergies, and even cancer. PBAPs include all particles with a biological source in suspension in the air (bacteria, fungi, viruses, and pollen), as well as biomolecules (toxins, and debris from membranes). To foster our current scientific knowledge on bioaerosols, research related to the characteristics of biological aerosols in indoor and outdoor environments, the methods used to improve air quality, as well as the health effects of and exposure assessments to bioaerosols, have been collected in this book.


Damp Indoor Spaces and Health

Damp Indoor Spaces and Health

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2004-10-01

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0309091934

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Almost all homes, apartments, and commercial buildings will experience leaks, flooding, or other forms of excessive indoor dampness at some point. Not only is excessive dampness a health problem by itself, it also contributes to several other potentially problematic types of situations. Molds and other microbial agents favor damp indoor environments, and excess moisture may initiate the release of chemical emissions from damaged building materials and furnishings. This new book from the Institute of Medicine examines the health impact of exposures resulting from damp indoor environments and offers recommendations for public health interventions. Damp Indoor Spaces and Health covers a broad range of topics. The book not only examines the relationship between damp or moldy indoor environments and adverse health outcomes but also discusses how and where buildings get wet, how dampness influences microbial growth and chemical emissions, ways to prevent and remediate dampness, and elements of a public health response to the issues. A comprehensive literature review finds sufficient evidence of an association between damp indoor environments and some upper respiratory tract symptoms, coughing, wheezing, and asthma symptoms in sensitized persons. This important book will be of interest to a wide-ranging audience of science, health, engineering, and building professionals, government officials, and members of the public.


Bioaerosols

Bioaerosols

Author: Janet Macher

Publisher: American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygenists

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13:

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Expanding far beyond its predecessor, this text offers a comprehensive guide to the assessment and control of bioaerosols in the full range of contemporary workplaces. Although the indoor environment remains a focus of concern, much of the information in this publication has application beyond office environments. The prominence of saprophytic microorganisms remains; however, more attention has been given to other important biological agents (e.g., arthropod and animal allergens, infectious agents, and microbial volatile organic compounds). In addition, fuller descriptions are provided for microbial toxins and cell wall components that may cause health effects


Microbiomes of the Built Environment

Microbiomes of the Built Environment

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-10-06

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0309449839

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People's desire to understand the environments in which they live is a natural one. People spend most of their time in spaces and structures designed, built, and managed by humans, and it is estimated that people in developed countries now spend 90 percent of their lives indoors. As people move from homes to workplaces, traveling in cars and on transit systems, microorganisms are continually with and around them. The human-associated microbes that are shed, along with the human behaviors that affect their transport and removal, make significant contributions to the diversity of the indoor microbiome. The characteristics of "healthy" indoor environments cannot yet be defined, nor do microbial, clinical, and building researchers yet understand how to modify features of indoor environmentsâ€"such as building ventilation systems and the chemistry of building materialsâ€"in ways that would have predictable impacts on microbial communities to promote health and prevent disease. The factors that affect the environments within buildings, the ways in which building characteristics influence the composition and function of indoor microbial communities, and the ways in which these microbial communities relate to human health and well-being are extraordinarily complex and can be explored only as a dynamic, interconnected ecosystem by engaging the fields of microbial biology and ecology, chemistry, building science, and human physiology. This report reviews what is known about the intersection of these disciplines, and how new tools may facilitate advances in understanding the ecosystem of built environments, indoor microbiomes, and effects on human health and well-being. It offers a research agenda to generate the information needed so that stakeholders with an interest in understanding the impacts of built environments will be able to make more informed decisions.


Microorganisms in Home and Indoor Work Environments

Microorganisms in Home and Indoor Work Environments

Author: Brian Flannigan

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2002-01-03

Total Pages: 555

ISBN-13: 0203302931

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Despite the large amount of money spent on research into pollution of the indoor environment, the problem remains complex with major gaps in our knowledge of the identities and sources of pollutants and of the effects of prolonged exposure to indoor pollutants on health. Microorganisms in Home and Indoor Work Environments considers one such group o


Bioaerosols Handbook

Bioaerosols Handbook

Author: Christopher S. Cox

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2020-11-26

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 1000157849

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This comprehensive handbook provides up-to-date knowledge and practical advice from established authorities in aerosol science. It covers the principles and practices of bioaerosol sampling, descriptions and comparisons of bioaerosol samplers, calibration methods, and assay techniques, with an emphasis on practicalities, such as which sampler to use and where it should be placed. The text also offers critiques concerning handling the samples to provide representative and meaningful assays for their viability, infectivity, and allergenicity. A wide range of microbes-viz., viruses, bacteria, fungi and pollens, and their fragments-are considered from such perspectives. Bioaerosols Handbook is divided into four parts, providing a wide-ranging reference work, as well as a practical guide on how best to sample and assay bioaerosols using current technology.


Aerosols Handbook

Aerosols Handbook

Author: Lev S. Ruzer

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2004-12-28

Total Pages: 728

ISBN-13: 0203493184

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As more attention is dedicated to understanding the occupational health risks associated with the industrial manufacture and use of nanotechnology, Aerosols Handbook: Measurement, Dosimetry, and Health Effects is a timely presentation of time-tested research in the field of aerosol science. The book covers a multitude of topics in indoor, outdoor,


Continents and Supercontinents

Continents and Supercontinents

Author: John J. W. Rogers

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2004-09-16

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0195165896

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Surveys the origin of continents, and the accretion and breakup of supercontinents through earth history. This book also shows how these processes affected the composition of seawater, climate, and the evolution of life.


Bioaerosol Characterisation, Transportation and Transmission

Bioaerosol Characterisation, Transportation and Transmission

Author: Yihuan Yan

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-07-03

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9819922569

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This book aims to predict and model the transport of bioaerosols, identify their transmission characteristics, and assess occupants’ infection risks. Although existing epidemiological books provide fundamental infection rate of existing diseases, the ability of predicting emerging disease transmission in the air and assessing occupants’ infection risks to the bioaerosols is significantly lacking. This book is considered as a professional book that provides in-depth discussion of the aforementioned issues and provides potential approaches to solve these issues would be highly demanded by readers in this emerging research field. This book offers essential and systematic analysis on the fate of bioaerosols from their release in the air to the final destination in human’s respiratory systems through direct 3D visualizations techniques. It also provides quantifiable method to assess each occupant’s infection risks to the infectious bioaerosols in indoor environments. The readers will gain essential fundamental characteristics of bioaerosols (active time, viability, etc.) and will gain the advanced skills on how to integrate these properties into numerical modeling and assess the occupants’ exposure risks.


The Healthy Indoor Environment

The Healthy Indoor Environment

Author: Philomena M. Bluyssen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-30

Total Pages: 794

ISBN-13: 1134581440

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Despite policy directives, standards and guidelines, indoor environmental quality is still poor in many cases. The Healthy Indoor Environment, winner of the 2016 IDEC Book Award, aims to help architects, building engineers and anyone concerned with the wellbeing of building occupants to better understand the effects of spending time in buildings on health and comfort. In three clear parts dedicated to mechanisms, assessment and analysis, the book looks at different indoor stressors and their effects on wellbeing in a variety of scenarios with a range of tools and methods. The book supports a more holistic way of evaluating indoor environments and argues that a clear understanding of how the human body and mind receive, perceive and respond to indoor conditions is needed. At the national, European and worldwide level, it is acknowledged that a healthy and comfortable indoor environment is important both for the quality of life, now and in the future, and for the creation of truly sustainable buildings. Moreover, current methods of risk assessment are no longer adequate: a different view on indoor environment is required. Highly illustrated and full of practical examples, the book makes recommendations for future procedures for investigating indoor environmental quality based on an interdisciplinary understanding of the mechanisms of responses to stressors. It forms the basis for the development of an integrated approach towards assessment of indoor environmental quality.