The Impact of School Environment on Children's Respiratory Health

Fsadni, Peter; Bezzina, Frank; Fsadni, Claudia; Aquilina, Noel J.; Montefort, Stephen

doi:10.1159/000440837

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(26 reference statements)

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“…These results were in accordance with some previous studies in the literature, namely with a study in primary school children (aged 9-11 years old) from Malta that also reported a direct association between wheezing and high exposure to indoor formaldehyde and PM 2.5 [26]. Rawi et al [10] stated significant associations between wheezing and indoor PM 2.5 concentrations in preschools (aged 5-6 years old) from Selangor, Malaysia and no significant association between indoor CO 2 concentration and respiratory symptoms.…”

Section: Modelling Associations Between Iap Exposure and Active Wheezingsupporting

confidence: 93%

Children’s Exposure to Indoor Air in Schools: Impact on Wheezing

Sá

Branco

Alvim-Ferraz

et al. 2019

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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Wheezing is a common symptom in childhood and has been associated with air pollution. Children spend a large part of their time in school, this being the most important indoor environment apart from home. However, studies on the impact of children's indoor air pollution exposure at schools on respiratory health are scarce. Thus, this study aimed to assess the impact of children's exposure to indoor air pollution in a total of five urban nursery and primary schools on active wheezing. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations, adjusted for sex, age group (pre-school/primary school) and parental history of asthma. A microenvironmental modelling approach was used to estimate indoor air pollution exposure to each of the pollutants exceeding legislation limit values (CO2, formaldehyde and PM2.5), as the sum of the product of time spent by the child in different indoor school microenvironments and the time-averaged concentration measured in each microenvironment. Measurements were performed in 11 classrooms, two bedrooms and two canteens in Porto, Portugal. A total of 164 completed parent-reported questionnaires derived from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood allowed to identify active wheezing (at least one wheeze episode in the previous 12 months) in 16.5% of the studied children. Although not statistically significant, the studied children's exposure to indoor air pollution in nursery and primary schools seemed to be associated with an increase in the odds of having active wheezing especially for PM2.5 (OR = 1.57, p-value = 0.675). These results highlight the importance of applying indoor air pollution mitigation measures in nursery and primary schools. The impacts of those measures, on both indoor air quality and children's respiratory health, should be evaluated in future studies.

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Section: Modelling Associations Between Iap Exposure and Active Wheezingsupporting

confidence: 93%

Children’s Exposure to Indoor Air in Schools: Impact on Wheezing

Sá

Branco

Alvim-Ferraz

et al. 2019

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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“…The mean indoor PM 2.5 level of 17.78 μg/m 3 and CO (9.11 ppm) exceeded the thresholds set by the WHO. 59 The Park study showed the effects of outdoor temperature on the exam day on student performance, using 4.6 million high school exit tests in New York. The author finds that students taking an exam on a day with temperatures higher than 32°C scores up to 14% lower.…”

Section: Air Quality Guidelines (Aqg)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Indoor air quality at the Arab governmental girls’ schools

El-Sharkawy

Aljassim²,

Alsaif³

et al. 2022

F1000Res

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Background: A proper and adequate school environment is important for an effective learning process and maintaining the health of the students as they spend most of their time in schools. The physical school environment includes the physical structures; presence of chemicals and biological agents; and the surrounding environment, including air, water, and materials. This study aimed to evaluate the indoor air quality (IAQ) in governmental girls’ schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methods: Seventeen girls’ schools were randomly selected in the Eastern Province of KSA. The indoor levels of PM10 and PM2.5, volatile organic compounds, CO, NO2, and CO2 were measured at different sites inside each school during four months of the year 2020. In addition, a pre-designed questionnaire was used to evaluate the safety preparedness in the same selected schools. Results: Levels of the six air pollutants were higher inside schools adjacent to roads with moderate traffic activity than schools with low and very low traffic activity. However, the mean level of CO2 inside the selected schools was higher than its outdoor level, suggesting the predominance of an indoor source of CO2. Levels of all measured air pollutants inside governmental constructed school buildings were higher than those inside the rental type. Conclusion: The average levels of air pollutants inside the selected schools were much lower than their air quality guidelines (AQGs), while some CO2 and NO2 levels exceeded their AQGs at some schools.

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“…In general, children spend more time in schools than in any other indoor environment excluding homes (i.e. most of daytime and up to 30% of their time), and thus, schools can contribute significantly to children's daily exposure to air pollution (Fsadni et al 2018;Branco et al 2020). IAQ in schools depends on many factors including ventilation efficiency, frequency of cleaning and number of students in the classroom (Madureira et al 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A preliminary study on microbial air contamination in select schools in Doha, Qatar

et al. 2021

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Available data of the indoor airborne culturable bacteria and fungi at schools' environments is very limited in the peninsula of Qatar. This study aims to determine the microbial load in indoor and outdoor air at three schools utilizing two types of air sampling methods: (i) six-stage Andersen cascade impactor for cultivable microbes and (ii) air filtration method for noncultivable microbes. The maximum levels of airborne culturable bacteria were 971 CFU/m 3 in indoor and 334 CFU/m 3 in outdoor air samples in the morning in a private (international) school. Lower concentrations of airborne culturable bacteria were recorded in indoor (348 CFU/m 3 ) and outdoor areas (261 CFU/m 3 ) in the afternoon. High CFU numbers (971 CFU/ m 3 ) were observed at the food court area during breakfast time, exceeding the WHO indoor air quality limit value. The size distribution of the bacteria had maximum in the 1.1 -2.3 μm size bin. The most frequently isolated fungal genera were Aspergillus and Penicillium, and their concentration was higher during winter. The prevalence and concentration of airborne microbes were altering spatially (indoors versus outdoors), temporally (morning versus afternoon) and seasonally (winter versus summer). The results indicate that airborne bacterial and fungal spores must be considered as important biological pollutants. Our findings might contribute to the implementation of preventative public health programs and creation of recommendations aimed at providing healthier school environments.

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The Impact of School Environment on Children's Respiratory Health

Cited by 6 publications

References 26 publications

Children’s Exposure to Indoor Air in Schools: Impact on Wheezing

Children’s Exposure to Indoor Air in Schools: Impact on Wheezing

Indoor air quality at the Arab governmental girls’ schools

A preliminary study on microbial air contamination in select schools in Doha, Qatar

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