School children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter
Assessing the exposure of children to indoor fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ) is important because children spend about one third of their day inside early learning microenvironments. Children are more vulnerable to air pollution due to a number of physiological reasons and, therefore, it is cruci...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbafe |
| _version_ | 1797747753743286272 |
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| author | Nathan Cooper Donna Green Yuming Guo Sotiris Vardoulakis |
| author_facet | Nathan Cooper Donna Green Yuming Guo Sotiris Vardoulakis |
| author_sort | Nathan Cooper |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Assessing the exposure of children to indoor fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ) is important because children spend about one third of their day inside early learning microenvironments. Children are more vulnerable to air pollution due to a number of physiological reasons and, therefore, it is crucial to explore the factors that affect indoor (and outdoor) PM _2.5 levels in these locations to determine appropriate measures to reduce children’s exposure to air pollution. To provide health policy guidance about how to reduce indoor air pollution in schools, this study systematically reviewed the associations between environmental factors and classroom characteristics with indoor PM _2.5 concentrations or indoor/outdoor (I/O) PM _2.5 in early learning microenvironments using a PRISMA framework. The systematic literature search reviewed studies that: monitored indoor PM _2.5 levels in at least one early learning microenvironment; measured outdoor PM _2.5 levels; and, analysed the influence of relevant factors on PM _2.5 concentrations or I/O relationships. From an initial search of 1282 results, 66 studies were included in the final review. Overall, these studies showed a lack of robust statistical analyses being performed, inconsistent application of methodological approaches and considerable variation in results. Consequently, these studies demonstrated weak evidence of significant and consistent associations between seasonal, meteorological, activity-based, site-based and ventilation rate variables with indoor PM _2.5 concentrations. Further large-scale and statistically robust analyses are needed to accurately quantify these associations, with particular attention needed as to how associations between influential variables and indoor PM _2.5 concentrations or I/O relationships change with seasonal and other factors, and whether these associations vary spatially. Once identified, these factors and relationships could be used to inform policy decisions that would enable better protection of the health of children in early learning microenvironments from chronic and acute exposure to air pollution. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d0bf3101662a4c0382990088bdab3d9b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:08Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-d0bf3101662a4c0382990088bdab3d9b2023-08-09T14:57:51ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262020-01-01151111500310.1088/1748-9326/abbafeSchool children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matterNathan Cooper0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8574-7944Donna Green1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4521-8735Yuming Guo2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1766-6592Sotiris Vardoulakis3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3944-7128Climate Change Research Centre and Digital Grid Futures Institute, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of New South Wales , Sydney, NSW 2052, AustraliaClimate Change Research Centre and Digital Grid Futures Institute, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of New South Wales , Sydney, NSW 2052, AustraliaSchool of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University , 553 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC 3004, AustraliaResearch School of Population Health, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 0200, AustraliaAssessing the exposure of children to indoor fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ) is important because children spend about one third of their day inside early learning microenvironments. Children are more vulnerable to air pollution due to a number of physiological reasons and, therefore, it is crucial to explore the factors that affect indoor (and outdoor) PM _2.5 levels in these locations to determine appropriate measures to reduce children’s exposure to air pollution. To provide health policy guidance about how to reduce indoor air pollution in schools, this study systematically reviewed the associations between environmental factors and classroom characteristics with indoor PM _2.5 concentrations or indoor/outdoor (I/O) PM _2.5 in early learning microenvironments using a PRISMA framework. The systematic literature search reviewed studies that: monitored indoor PM _2.5 levels in at least one early learning microenvironment; measured outdoor PM _2.5 levels; and, analysed the influence of relevant factors on PM _2.5 concentrations or I/O relationships. From an initial search of 1282 results, 66 studies were included in the final review. Overall, these studies showed a lack of robust statistical analyses being performed, inconsistent application of methodological approaches and considerable variation in results. Consequently, these studies demonstrated weak evidence of significant and consistent associations between seasonal, meteorological, activity-based, site-based and ventilation rate variables with indoor PM _2.5 concentrations. Further large-scale and statistically robust analyses are needed to accurately quantify these associations, with particular attention needed as to how associations between influential variables and indoor PM _2.5 concentrations or I/O relationships change with seasonal and other factors, and whether these associations vary spatially. Once identified, these factors and relationships could be used to inform policy decisions that would enable better protection of the health of children in early learning microenvironments from chronic and acute exposure to air pollution.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbafeindoor air qualitychildrenearly learningparticulate matterindoor/outdoor pollution |
| spellingShingle | Nathan Cooper Donna Green Yuming Guo Sotiris Vardoulakis School children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter Environmental Research Letters indoor air quality children early learning particulate matter indoor/outdoor pollution |
| title | School children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter |
| title_full | School children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter |
| title_fullStr | School children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter |
| title_full_unstemmed | School children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter |
| title_short | School children’s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter |
| title_sort | school children s exposure to indoor fine particulate matter |
| topic | indoor air quality children early learning particulate matter indoor/outdoor pollution |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbafe |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nathancooper schoolchildrensexposuretoindoorfineparticulatematter AT donnagreen schoolchildrensexposuretoindoorfineparticulatematter AT yumingguo schoolchildrensexposuretoindoorfineparticulatematter AT sotirisvardoulakis schoolchildrensexposuretoindoorfineparticulatematter |