Publications by authors named "L Ernle"
Humans are known to be a continuous and potent indoor source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, little is known about how personal hygiene, in terms of showering frequency, can influence these emissions and their impact on indoor air chemistry involving ozone. In this study, we characterized the VOC composition of the air in a controlled climate chamber (22.
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- Hydroxyl (OH) radicals, which can oxidize various pollutant gases, were found at high levels when individuals were exposed to ozone in a controlled environment.
- The study utilized two methods to measure OH concentrations, which aligned with results from a detailed chemical model.
- A compound called 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (6-MHO) plays a crucial role in generating OH when ozone reacts with skin oil, affecting indoor air chemistry and potentially human health.
Article Synopsis
- Carbon dioxide (CO) and methane (CH) are significant greenhouse gases affecting Earth's climate, but human metabolic emissions of these gases have not been extensively studied.
- A research study measured CO and CH emissions from 20 volunteers under controlled conditions, finding individual differences greatly impacted CH emissions, while CO emissions increased with temperature.
- The study revealed that one-third of participants were significant CH producers and suggests that as global populations grow and human-made emissions decrease, CH emissions from people may become more relevant in the overall carbon budget.
Human-emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are mainly from breath and the skin. In this study, we continuously measured VOCs in a stainless-steel environmentally controlled climate chamber (22.5 m, air change rate at 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople influence indoor air chemistry through their chemical emissions via breath and skin. Previous studies showed that direct measurement of total OH reactivity of human emissions matched that calculated from parallel measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from breath, skin, and the whole body. In this study, we determined, with direct measurements from two independent groups of four adult volunteers, the effect of indoor temperature and humidity, clothing coverage (amount of exposed skin), and indoor ozone concentration on the total OH reactivity of gaseous human emissions.
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