Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz
January 2024
The IPCC 2021 report predicts rising global temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events in the future, which will have different effects on the regional climate and concentrations of ambient air pollutants. Consequently, changes in heat and mass transfer between the inside and outside of buildings will also have an increasing impact on indoor air quality. It is therefore surprising that indoor spaces and occupant well-being still play a subordinate role in the studies of climate change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz
December 2021
Exhaled aerosol particles play an important role in the transmission of SARS-CoV‑2, particularly when many people gather indoors. This article summarises the knowledge on virus transmission in schools and practical measures to reduce aerosol-driven infections. A central preventive measure is to enhance room and building ventilation, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndoor air concentrations of formaldehyde, furfural, benzaldehyde, and 11 aliphatic aldehydes (C -C ) were measured in residences of 639 participants in the German Environmental Survey for Children and Adolescents 2014-2017 (GerES V). Sampling was conducted using passive samplers over periods of approximately seven days for each participant. The most abundant compounds were formaldehyde and hexanal with median concentrations of 24.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore representative data on source-specific particle number emission rates and associated exposure in European households are needed. In this study, indoor and outdoor particle number size distributions (10-800 nm) were measured in 40 German households under real-use conditions in over 500 days. Particle number emission rates were derived for around 800 reported indoor source events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent studies demonstrate that Black Carbon (BC) pollution in economically developing megacities remain higher than the values, which the World Health Organization considers to be safe. Despite the scientific evidence of the degrees of BC exposure, there is still a lack of understanding on how the severe levels of BC pollution affect human health in these regions. We consider information on the respiratory tract deposition dose (DD) of BC to be essential in understanding the link between personal exposure to air pollutants and corresponding health effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz
June 2018
People in Central Europe spend most of their time in private dwellings, offices, education centres or other public buildings. In these indoor places, they are exposed to a variety of gaseous or particulate pollutants that potentially exert adverse health effects. This work compiles current fields of action that are discussed in the public, among expert panels, and in the scientific community.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentrations alongside with submicrometer particle number size distributions and particle chemical composition have been measured at atmospheric observatories of the Aerosols, Clouds, and Trace gases Research InfraStructure (ACTRIS) as well as other international sites over multiple years. Here, harmonized data records from 11 observatories are summarized, spanning 98,677 instrument hours for CCN data, 157,880 for particle number size distributions, and 70,817 for chemical composition data. The observatories represent nine different environments, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUltrafine particles (UFPs; diameter less than 100 nm) are ubiquitous in urban air, and an acknowledged risk to human health. Globally, the major source for urban outdoor UFP concentrations is motor traffic. Ongoing trends towards urbanisation and expansion of road traffic are anticipated to further increase population exposure to UFPs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe success of epidemiological studies depends on the use of appropriate exposure variables. The purpose of this study is to extract a relatively small selection of variables characterizing ambient particulate matter from a large measurement data set. The original data set comprised a total of 96 particulate matter variables that have been continuously measured since 2004 at an urban background aerosol monitoring site in the city of Augsburg, Germany.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular disease and lung cancer. In this study, we used size fractionated PM samples (3-7, 1.5-3, 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe apparent particle density of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 microm (rho2.5) was determined at an urban site in Augsburg, Germany and its correlation with chemical composition and meteorological conditions was investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong-term observations of atmospheric constituents such as aerosol particles are increasingly needed to assess their impact on climate and human health. In contrast to particle mass concentration (MC), there are currently no standardized quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) procedures for the measurement of particle size distribution (PSD). This study describes some fundamental QC and QA procedures associated with the collection and evaluation of a 2 year dataset between 2005 and 2006 at an urban background monitoring site in Augsburg, Germany.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe abundance and the behavior of metals (Al, Ti, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Ag, Cd, Sn, Ba, Pt, Hg, and Pb) and ions (Na+ K+ Mg2+ Ca2+, NH4+, Cl-, NO3-, SO4(2-), PO4(3-), and oxalate) in size-fractionated atmospheric particulate matter (PM) were studied in the U. K. and Ireland at four observation sites simulating extreme degrees of vehicular-traffic influence in the environment.
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