Indoor Air Pollutants and Public Health (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality and Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 2083

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Interests: building environment; indoor air quality; ambient environment; public health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
Interests: ambient environment; VOCs; PM2.5; public health; children
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA
Interests: public health; AI health; environmental statistics; biostatistics; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Public Health (Shenzhen), Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen 518107, China
Interests: air pollution; environmental health; low-cost sensors; healthy buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China
Interests: building environment; indoor air quality; pollution source control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a follow-up of the 1st edition of “Indoor Air Quality and Public Health” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere/special_issues/17VQ6MV5LS).

Environmental factors are major determinants of human health worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 20% of all deaths were attributed to environmental factors. People spend most of their time indoors, so indoor sources of exposure have lifelong implications for health. In recent decades, a wide range of modern pollutants associated with new building materials and modernized lifestyles have emerged. Furthermore, the ambient air pollutants infiltrating into indoor spaces which are closely linked to disease burden for individuals and communities are also spiking. Thus, there is an urgent need to recognize and address health-related environmental pollutants, including the type of pollutants, the source of pollutants and how they related to healthy outcomes.

However, clarifying the source of pollutants and characterizing the relationship between pollutants and health is a complex and difficult process. The emission source characteristics are too complex to be addressed. The multiple influencing factors and emission sources are responsible for concentrations of various pollutants, and the characteristics vary in different situations. Added to this is the fact that it is “contingent” for pollutants to have an effect on health. Susceptible individuals must receive sufficient does of exposures to induce detectable symptoms of various dimensions, and adverse health effects are usually too weak to be recognized. In addition, the interaction effect between indoor/outdoor pollutants and healthy outcomes is much more difficult to detect than pollutants emitted from single source. However, the interaction effects among pollutants represent the most significant threat they pose.

This Special Issue of Atmosphere welcomes contributions on aspects of indoor/outdoor environmental pollutants related to the health of populations. Publications highlighting methods for detecting, validating, addressing, qualifying or quantifying the emission source characteristics of indoor/outdoor pollutants, as well as the association between them and human health and interaction effects of indoor/outdoor pollutants on healthy outcome, are encouraged.

Dr. Shaodan Huang
Dr. Jing Li
Dr. Chuan Hong
Dr. Jianbang Xiang
Dr. Lei Lei
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • indoor air quality
  • air pollutants
  • VOCs
  • PM2.5
  • ventilation
  • public health

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 18399 KiB  
Article
Comprehensive Study of Natural Radioactivity in Building Materials: A Case Study in Ica, Peru
by Rafael Liza, Patrizia Pereyra, Daniel Muñoz, Victor Viera, Maria Elena López Herrera, Jhonny Rojas, Daniel Palacios, Félix Díaz, Nhell Cerna, Segundo Rojas and Laszlo Sajo-Bohus
Atmosphere 2024, 15(3), 279; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15030279 - 26 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1734
Abstract
This study evaluates radon exhalation rates and assesses the potential radiological risks of external exposure to primordial radionuclides in building materials employed in the Ica region of Peru, particularly those with high uranium content. The radon exhalation rates are currently measured using a [...] Read more.
This study evaluates radon exhalation rates and assesses the potential radiological risks of external exposure to primordial radionuclides in building materials employed in the Ica region of Peru, particularly those with high uranium content. The radon exhalation rates are currently measured using a combination of a closed chamber and an active monitor. We proposed a novel method that effectively ensured a hermetic seal for the closed chamber and guaranteed that the efficient maintenance of secular equilibrium. The obtained results ranged from below the detection limit (BDL) to a maximum of 52.3 mBq · kg−1h−1. Gamma spectrometry was employed to measure the concentrations of radionuclides by utilizing a 3′ × 3′ NaI detector. The analysis of cement samples revealed a strong positive correlation between the activity concentration of radium and the radon exhalation rate. The activity concentrations for radionuclides varied, with values ranging from BDL to 60.6 mBq · kg−1h−1 for 226Ra, BDL to 22.3 mBq · kg−1h−1 for 232Th, and BDL to 1074 mBq · kg−1h−1 for 40K. These findings contribute valuable insight to decision-making processes in the Peruvian construction industry, particularly regarding material safety and radiological risk management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Indoor Air Pollutants and Public Health (2nd Edition))
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