IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i22p12149-d682890.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Indoor Air Quality Prior to and Following School Building Renovation in a Mid-Atlantic School District

Author

Listed:
  • Sandra E. Zaeh

    (Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
    Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Kirsten Koehler

    (Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Michelle N. Eakin

    (Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Christopher Wohn

    (Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Ike Diibor

    (Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Thomas Eckmann

    (Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Tianshi David Wu

    (Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
    Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA)

  • Dorothy Clemons-Erby

    (Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Christine E. Gummerson

    (Division of Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA)

  • Timothy Green

    (Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Megan Wood

    (Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Ehsan Majd

    (Division of Mobile Source Control, California Air Resources Board, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA)

  • Marc L. Stein

    (Johns Hopkins School of Education, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
    Baltimore Education Research Consortium, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Ana Rule

    (Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Meghan F. Davis

    (Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
    Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

  • Meredith C. McCormack

    (Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA)

Abstract

Children spend the majority of their time indoors, and a substantial portion of this time in the school environment. Air pollution has been shown to adversely impact lung development and has effects that extend beyond respiratory health. The goal of this study was to evaluate the indoor environment in public schools in the context of an ongoing urban renovation program to investigate the impact of school building renovation and replacement on indoor air quality. Indoor air quality (CO 2 , PM 2.5 , CO, and temperature) was assessed for two weeks during fall, winter, and spring seasons in 29 urban public schools between December 2015 and March 2020. Seven schools had pre- and post-renovation data available. Linear mixed models were used to examine changes in air quality outcomes by renovation status in the seven schools with pre- and post-renovation data. Prior to renovation, indoor CO measurements were within World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, and indoor PM 2.5 measurements rarely exceeded them. Within the seven schools with pre- and post-renovation data, over 30% of indoor CO 2 measurements and over 50% of indoor temperatures exceeded recommended guidelines from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers. Following renovation, 10% of indoor CO 2 measurements and 28% of indoor temperatures fell outside of the recommended ranges. Linear mixed models showed significant improvement in CO 2 , indoor PM 2.5 , and CO following school renovation. Even among schools that generally met recommendations on key guidelines, school renovation improved the indoor air quality. Our findings suggest that school renovation may benefit communities of children, particularly those in low-income areas with aging school infrastructure, through improvements in the indoor environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandra E. Zaeh & Kirsten Koehler & Michelle N. Eakin & Christopher Wohn & Ike Diibor & Thomas Eckmann & Tianshi David Wu & Dorothy Clemons-Erby & Christine E. Gummerson & Timothy Green & Megan Wood & , 2021. "Indoor Air Quality Prior to and Following School Building Renovation in a Mid-Atlantic School District," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-14, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:12149-:d:682890
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12149/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/12149/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sutyajeet Soneja & Chen Chen & James M. Tielsch & Joanne Katz & Scott L. Zeger & William Checkley & Frank C. Curriero & Patrick N. Breysse, 2014. "Humidity and Gravimetric Equivalency Adjustments for Nephelometer-Based Particulate Matter Measurements of Emissions from Solid Biomass Fuel Use in Cookstoves," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefano Zauli-Sajani & Stefano Marchesi & Giuseppe Boselli & Elisa Broglia & Alessandro Angella & Elena Maestri & Nelson Marmiroli & Annamaria Colacci, 2022. "Effectiveness of a Protocol to Reduce Children’s Exposure to Particulate Matter and NO 2 in Schools during Alert Days," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-12, September.
    2. Qingman Li & Jie Liang & Qun Wang & Yuntong Chen & Hongyu Yang & Hong Ling & Zhiwen Luo & Jian Hang, 2022. "Numerical Investigations of Urban Pollutant Dispersion and Building Intake Fraction with Various 3D Building Configurations and Tree Plantings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-34, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Darrell B. Sonntag & Hanyong Jung & Royce P. Harline & Tyler C. Peterson & Selah E. Willis & Taylor R. Christensen & James D. Johnston, 2023. "Infiltration of Outdoor PM 2.5 Pollution into Homes with Evaporative Coolers in Utah County," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Kristen D. Ojo & Sutyajeet I. Soneja & Carolyn G. Scrafford & Subarna K. Khatry & Steven C. LeClerq & William Checkley & Joanne Katz & Patrick N. Breysse & James M. Tielsch, 2015. "Indoor Particulate Matter Concentration, Water Boiling Time, and Fuel Use of Selected Alternative Cookstoves in a Home-Like Setting in Rural Nepal," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-24, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:12149-:d:682890. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.