Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/892198
Healthy Indoors 9 and the impact of interventions. The paper was published this month in Microbiome journal. Databases France hosts the PANDORA database, a compilation of indoor air pollutant emissions, which helps with IAQ modeling at http://lasie.univ-larochelle.fr/PANDORA-A-comPilAtion-of- iNDoOR. Started in 2011, the database was recently updated to include envelope leakage information, weather, ventilation system characteristics, contaminant source emission rates, sink removal rates, occupant schedules, and air cleaner removal rates. The aim of the current project is to compile the available data regarding the emission rates of both gaseous and particulate pollutants in a systematic way into a database to provide useful information for IAQ modelers. The Inventory of European Research on the Indoor En- vironment (IERIE) at www.ieh.cranfield.ac.uk/ierie/index. htm features a database produced and maintained by the Institute of Environment and Health (IEH) on behalf of the Department of Health and the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC). You can access up-to-date information on research activities throughout Europe relating to the indoor environment of domestic and public buildings, together with details of research workers and their organizations. Although not an international group, Berkeley Lab hosts the IAQ Scientific Findings Resource Bank (www. iaqscience.lbl.gov/) and offers answers to questions for a global audience. Topics include IAQ in schools, air cleaning effects on health, indoor VOCs and health, dampness and mold, health and economic impacts of building ventilation, and many others. Organizations Finally, here are only a few of the organizations cur- rently leading the way in global research and practice. Healthy Indoors will soon post a more exhaustive list of these groups and their latest work on our website at www. healthyindoors.com. Levin told Healthy Indoors the Technical University of Denmark at www.iciee.byg.dtu.dk is one such institution making great strides in the area of IEQ research ad practice. The school has the International Centre for Indoor Environ- ment and Energy that strives for human health, comfort, and productivity with minimal energy consumption. Some of their areas of expertise where their students are advancing research are in exposure assessment and human outcome; human performance and behavior; advanced ventilation "Previous studies have looked solely at direct emissions from cookstoves," says Andrew Grieshop, an assistant pro- fessor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the work. "We've now done a series of experiments to de- termine what happens to those emissions while they are in the atmosphere." Current Trends Healthy Indoors asked Hal Levin of Building Ecology Re- search Group and editor of BuildingEcology.com what he saw as current trends happening internationally in the indoor environmental field of research or practice. He named two of what he considers the most important in today's world. First, he said the importance of indoor exposures is more vital than ever before. Dr. Kirk Smith, professor of global environmental health, is leading a research group (includ- ing former students in India) to address the relationships among environmental quality, health, resource use, devel- opment, and policy in developing countries, with a focus on the health effects of air pollution exposure in developing countries, particularly in women and children from house- hold air pollution due to solid fuel use. He recently launched the Collaborative Clean Air Policy Centre, which explores, evaluates, and compares policy options for dealing with In- dia's health-damaging air pollution problems of all types, including ambient and household. Also in China, Levin said Smith has done research that concluded dilution with very polluted outdoor air is not the solution. Some of Smith's publications this year have focused on household stoves in India; microchip-based sensors to estimate air pollution exposures in rural households; and the impact of household cooking and heating in Beijing. Second, Levin told Healthy Indoors that the increased recognition of interactions between chemicals in air and on surfaces (including human skin) indoors is making a global impact. Sayana Tsushima was the lead researcher on a paper accepted this month for publication in Indoor Air journal on sensory evaluation and chemical analysis of exhaled and dermally emitted bioeffluents. Pawel War- gock of the Technical University of Denmark and Shinichi Tanabe of Waseda University in Tokyo also contributed and the three also have studied ventilation and health symp- toms in schools. Rachel Adams of UC-Berkeley was on the team to lead one of the first studies to analyze changes in indoor microbiota in severely moisture-damaged homes