Este trabalho apresenta uma caracterização ambiental do Mercado Municipal da cidade de São Carlos-SP, localizado na região central da cidade, onde ocorre grande movimentação de pessoas e veículos, em horário comercial. Foram analisados os níveis de material particulado em suspensão no ar, nas suas frações MP10 e MP2,5, níveis de ruído, temperatura e umidade relativa do ar relativa, nos ambientes internos e externos do Mercado. Os valores das concentrações de material particulado, tanto para MP10, como MP2,5, apresentaram-se, em geral, maiores no ambiente interno do que no externo. Os valores encontrados para MP2,5 chegaram a 66,60 g/m³, no ambiente interno, e 60,56 g/m³, no externo. Para a fração MP10, a concentração interna alcançou o valor de 117,74 g/m³ e a externa atingiu os 134,51 g/m³. Duas metodologias diferentes foram utilizadas para a determinação da concentração de material particulado em suspensão, a gravimetria pelo Personal Enviromental Monitor (PEM), e a fotometria por espalhamento de luz pelo aparelho ADR-1500 e pDR-1500. A técnica da gravimetria apresentou, em geral, os valores mais elevados. Uma análise do material particulado foi realizada, por meio da técnica de Fluorescência de Raio-X, para identificação dos elementos químicos presentes. Foram encontrados: Ba, Ca, K, Zn, S, Fe, e Rb. Já em relação à temperatura e umidade relativa do ar, os níveis oscilaram bastante durante o dia, com médias da temperatura interna entre 14°C e 34°C, e a umidade com valores entre 19% e 58%. Foi calculado o Índice de Calor (Hi - Heat Index), revelando desconforto térmico na maior parte dos dias, com as temperaturas internas normalmente acima das externas. Os níveis de ruído encontrados no ambiente interno e externo chegaram a 71,42 e 85,43 dB(A), respectivamente. Foi aplicado um questionário sobre qualidade ambiental aos funcionários do Mercado: 67% dos respondentes acham o local muito quente e 33 % consideram o local muito ruidoso. / This study presents an environmental characterization of the Municipal Market in the city of São Carlos, SP, located at the downtown area, where there is a great movement of people and vehicles, mainly during business hours. The levels of suspended particulate matter in the air were analyzed, in its fractions PM10 and PM2,5, noise levels, temperature and relative humidity in indoor and outdoor environments of the Market. The concentrations of the particulate material for both MP10 and PM2,5, are presented in general higher in the internal environment than the outer and exceeded the limits of the World Health Organization-WHO. The values for PM2,5 reached to 66,60 g/m³, the internal environment, and 60,56 g/m³, externally. For PM10 fraction, the internal concentration reached a value of 117,74 g/m³ and external reached 134,51 g/m³. Two different methods were used to determine the concentration of suspended particulate matter, gravimetry by The Environmental Monitor-PEM and light scattering photometric by the device ADR-1500 and pDR-1500. The gravimetric technique showed in general the highest values. An analysis of the particulate matter was performed by the technique of X-ray fluorescence for the identification of chemical elements. Were found: Ba, Ca, K, Zn, Fe and Rb. In relation to temperature and relative humidity, levels oscillated during the day, with average of the internal temperature between 14°C and 34°C, and humidity with values between 19% and 58%. Were calculated the Heat Index (Hi), revealing thermal discomfort in most of the days, with internal temperatures usually above the external. The noise levels in the internal and external environment reached 71,42 and 85,43 dB(A), respectively. A questionnaire about the environmental quality was applied on the officials Market: 67% of respondents thought the place was very hot and 33% considered the place very noisy.

De nos jours, les bâtiments sont de plus en plus confinés afin de limiter au maximum les déperditions énergétiques et parallèlement les matériaux de construction, d’ameublement et de décoration sont une source de composés organiques volatils (COV) et de formaldéhyde. La combinaison de ces deux éléments conduit à un air intérieur davantage pollué que l’air extérieur. Au cours de cette thèse, une nouvelle méthode d’analyse simultanée par SPME/GC/MS des COV et du formaldéhyde dans l’air intérieur a été développée. Une nouvelle cellule d’émission a également été mise au point pour évaluer les émissions des matériaux par couplage avec la SPME. L’ensemble de ces méthodes a été appliqué au suivi de la QAI et des émissions de matériaux de deux bâtiments neufs (un collège et un logement) durant les 6 mois suivant leur construction. Enfin, les données collectées au cours de ce suivi ont permis le développement d’un modèle prédictif de la QAI. / Nowadays, buildings are more and more airtight in order to limit heat loss as much as possible. At the same time, building, decorative and furnishing materials are known to be a volatile organic compound (VOC) and formaldehyde source. The result of these two facts is that indoor air is finally more polluted than outdoor air. During this PhD, a new analytical method based on SPME/GC/MS to analyse simultaneously VOCs and formaldehyde in indoor air was developed. A new emission cell was also designed to evaluate materials emission by coupling it with SPME. All these new methods were then applied in two new buildings (a high school and a dwelling) in order to follow indoor air quality and building materials emissions during the six month following their construction. Finally, the data collected during this study were used to develop an indoor air quality modeling.

In June 2008, the Cedar River crested flooding more than 5,000 Cedar Rapids homes. Residents whose homes were flooded were invited to participate in this study. We characterized exposures and symptoms experienced by individuals inhabiting 73 flood-damaged homes. Exposures and questionnaire-based health assessments were compared at two levels of remediation, in-progress and completed. Homes with remediation in-progress (n=24), as compared to the completed homes (n=49), had significantly higher airborne concentrations of mold, bacteria, iPM, endotoxin and glucan. Residents of in-progress homes had a significantly higher prevalence of doctor diagnosed allergies (adjusted OR=3.08; 95%CI: 1.05-9.02) and all residents had elevated prevalence of self-reported wheeze (adjusted OR=3.77; 95%CI: 2.06-6.92) and prescription medication use for breathing problems (adjusted OR=1.38; 95%CI: 1.01-1.88) after the flood as compared to before. Proper post-flood remediation led to improved air quality and lower exposures among residents living in flooded homes. Recognition of endotoxin as a proinflammatory ligand for pattern recognition receptors has increased the demand for endotoxin assessment in studies of environmental lung disease. Measurements using the Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay of air and reservoir dust samples are routinely incorporated into epidemiologic studies. However, it is unknown if endotoxin reactivity in the LAL assay varies by its physical presentation as aggregates, as membrane components of whole bacteria or as shed membrane blebs or if this parallels differences in the inflammatory potency of endotoxin in vivo. Endotoxins as14C-labeled-lipooligosaccharide (14C-LOS) and 14C- labeled-lipopolysaccharide (14C-LPS) were produced from Neisseria meningitidis and Escherichia coli. The reactivity of the endotoxin presentations was assessed in the LAL assay and in vivo using a murine model. The LAL assay significantly underestimated the quantity of endotoxin in the whole bacteria form whereas there was no significant difference in detecting endotoxin in aggregate and bleb forms. The failure of the LAL assay to equally quantify endotoxin was not mirrored in vivo where all three presentations of endotoxin were equally inflammatory. The inability of the LAL assay to detect the full quantity of endotoxin presented in the whole bacteria form has troubling implications for exposure assessment studies. Various extraction methods were applied to samples of known endotoxin quantity to improve the detection ability of the LAL assay. Extraction using EDTA and Tris/EDTA significantly improved the detection of endotoxin compared to the reference method of extracting in pyrogen-free water. These extraction methods also significantly increased the quantity of endotoxin measured in house and barn dust samples. A higher quantity of endotoxin measured in the LAL assay corresponded to a higher neutrophilic response in vivo. A standardized methodology for endotoxin detection that mimics the in vivo response is necessary for accurate and consistent endotoxin analysis.

Household air pollution (HAP) is responsible for almost 4 million premature deaths every year, a burden that is primarily carried by women and children in developing countries. The mortality and morbidity impact of HAP can be significantly alleviated through clean cookstove interventions. However, for these interventions to be effective, the new intervention stove must be a substantially cleaner technology and adoption should be high and sustained over time. Woody biomass is the fuel of choice in many developing communities, and contributes substantially to HAP. Several organizations have launched clean cooking interventions to address this issue. However, the majority of those interventions do not address adoption related challenges, that they often face. This thesis explores previous studies on Human-Centered Design (HCD) and the impact of feedback and data access on behavior change. It details a HCD process and methodology applied during the design process of an air quality feedback system, to improve adoption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cookstoves in Rwanda. The feedback system is intended to provide real-time air quality information to stove users and potentially encourage them to abandon traditional biomass cookstoves in favor of the cleaner LPG stoves.

Ozone in indoor environments can pose a health risk to human occupants; around half of exposure to this pollutant occurs inside buildings. One approach to reducing indoor O3 levels is to mitigate O3 as it enters a building via outdoor air ventilation supply. Often, mechanical systems that introduce outdoor air into buildings are placed on building rooftops. At the urban scale, greenery has been shown to reduce levels of some harmful pollutants, including ozone and cities like Portland, OR, are mandating green roofs be built on large commercial buildings to increase urban green surfaces. We investigate if rooftop vegetation may act as a sink for O3 as transport occurs across a green roof. It is known that O3 can react with vegetated surfaces and the ground but there is scant empirical research on said pollutant dynamics on vegetated green roofs, and little data concerning pollutant interactions occurring on other rooftop designs. Essentially unstudied is the potential of rooftop designs to affect local concentrations of pollutants where building outdoor air supply may be co-located. In this study, we investigate O3 dry deposition using resistance uptake theory in an area that includes a green roof on a local big box retail store through a field study conducted during a two-week period in the Summer of 2017. Deposition velocities and subsequently surface resistances were measured. The 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles for resistances were 54.8 s/m, 195.3 s/m, and 3692.9 s/m respectively. A 2-D advection-diffusion model of rooftop deposition is employed to describe transport across the green roof and sensitivity analysis was performed to compare the impact of different parameters. The sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the fetch length and the vegetation height had the biggest impact, followed by the meteorological parameters; the friction velocity and heat flux. The surface resistance had the least impact on deposition. An ideal case was used to demonstrate that even when conditions are maximized for deposition, the impact on the concentration gradient is minimal at best.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of 209 persistent organic pollutants, whose documented carcinogenic, neurological and respiratory toxicities are expansive and growing. Existing inhalation estimates demonstrate ubiquitous exposure to World Health Organization (WHO) indicator PCBs and limited other PCB congeners in North America and Europe. However, inhalation exposure estimates of most lower-chlorinated congeners are lacking, and continuing release of PCBs from urban areas demands location-specific assessments of PCB exposure in ambient air and contaminated environments. Using paired indoor and outdoor airborne PCB measurements and activity questionnaires from the AESOP Study, we assess congener-specific exposure rates for adolescent children and their mothers in East Chicago, Indiana and Columbus Junction, Iowa. Our cohorts of 129 (EC) and 135 (CJ) and our detection of 202 individual congeners and coelutions allows unprecedented quantification of congener-specific inhalation exposure, which we compare to dietary exposure using Total Diet Survey PCB concentrations. ∑PCB inhalation is greater for children than for their mothers in both locations, and is greater for East Chicago mothers and children than for Columbus Junction mothers and children, respectively. Schools attended by AESOP Study children have higher indoor PCB concentrations than do homes, and contribute to more than half of children's inhalation PCB exposure. Inhalation of the potentially neurotoxic congeners PCB 11, 40/41/71, and 51 was apparent among individuals at each location. Additional, congener-specific and biological inferences are possible via comparison with sera-based PCB concentrations for these cohorts.

L'occupation quasi constante des environnements intérieurs (en moyenne 90% du temps), expose en permanence les occupants à une large variété de microorganismes présents dans l'air de ces espaces. En raison de difficultés technologiques liées à la collecte et à l'analyse, ce domaine scientifique reste pourtant quasiment vierge et ce, malgré les retombées possibles dans le domaine de la santé. Le manque est particulièrement marqué, en ce qui concerne l'exposition des individus aux aérosols microbiens et plus globalement la gestion sanitaire de la qualité de l'air des espaces clos. Cette étude a pour objectif la caractérisation de la diversité microbienne de l'air de différents espaces clos collectifs par une approche qualitative et quantitative. L'ensemble de l'étude a porté sur des environnements sensibles d'un point de vue des occupants (Hôpital), de la densité de fréquentation (Le Musée du Louvre) ou d'un temps d'exposition prolongé (Bureau).L'originalité de cette thèse a résidé dans l'association d'une stratégie d'échantillonnage représentative des environnements étudiés et d'outils analytiques pertinents permettant d'étudier la microflore de l'air indépendamment de la cultivabilité des micro-organismes. Pour la première fois, un séquençage haut débit (pyroséquençage 454) a été appliqué à des échantillons d'air intérieur permettant d'accéder à une diversité microbienne rare comme le sont les espèces pathogènes. Les résultats montrent une diversité microbienne plus riche que celle habituellement observée par des méthodes culturales. Plusieurs micro-organismes impliqués dans des problématiques sanitaires ont été retrouvés (Borrelia spp., Burkholderia spp., Legionella spp., Neisseria spp. et Mycobacterium spp.). Les résultats mettent en évidence une stabilité à la fois spatiale et temporelle pour les bactéries retrouvées dans l'air intérieur. Cette stabilité est à la fois qualitative (structure des communautés microbiennes) et quantitative (abondance des microorganismes). La forte présence de séquences d'origine humaine permet de considérer l'Homme comme le principal élément orientant la microflore bactérienne de l'air intérieur. Des « cores species » signant l'air intérieur anthropisé ont pu être identifiées. / The constant occupation of indoor environments (average 90% of the time), constantly confront the occupants to a wide variety of microorganisms from the air of these spaces. Due to technological difficulties related to the collection and the analysis of airborne microorganisms, this field of study remains scanty, despite the potential health impact. The lack is particularly pronounced in terms of understanding of the risks of contamination of people by bioaerosols and overall health management of air quality of confined spaces.This study aims to characterize dynamics of the microbial diversity of different indoor environments. The entire study involved representative environments (hospital, office and museum).The originality of this thesis is the combination of a representative sampling strategy on environments studied and of analytical tools relevant to study the microflora of the indoor air regardless of the culturability of microorganisms.. For the first time, a high throughput sequencing (454 pyrosequencing) was applied to samples of indoor air in order to assess microbial diversity and pathogenic species..Several microorganisms implicated in health problems were found (Borrelia spp., Burkholderia spp. ,Legionella spp., Neisseria spp. and Mycobacterium spp.).The results give a different and more varied qualitative picture than that usually observed by cultural methods. The results show a stability of both spatial and temporal microflora of indoor air. This stability is both qualitative (microbial community structure) and quantitative (abundance of microorganisms). Man can be considered as the main factor driving the indoor air microflora due to the strong presence of sequences of human origin.'Cores species' signing the antropogenic indoor air were identified.

The aim of this thesis is three-fold: i) to investigate the performance of both the Eulerian-Lagrangian model and the Eulerian-Eulerian model to simulate the turbulent gas-particle flow; ii) to investigate the indoor airflows and contaminant particle flows using the Eulerian-Lagrangian model; iii) to develop and validate particle-wall collision models and a wall roughness model for the Eulerian-Lagrangian model and to utilize these models to investigate the effects of wall roughness on the particle flows. Firstly, the Eulerian-Lagrangian model in the software package FLUENT (FLUENT Inc.) and the Eulerian-Eulerian model in an in-house research code were employed to simulate the gas-particle flows. The validation against the measurement for two-phase flow over backward facing step and in a 90-degree bend revealed that both CFD approaches provide reasonably good prediction for both the gas and particle phases. Then, the Eulerian-Lagrangian model was employed to investigate the indoor airflows and contaminant particle concentration in two geometrically different rooms. For the first room configuration, the performances of three turbulence models for simulating indoor airflow were evaluated and validated against the measured air phase velocity data. All the three turbulence models provided good prediction of the air phase velocity, while the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model base on the Renormalization Group theory (RNG) provided the best agreement with the measurements. As well, the RNG LES model is able to provide the instantaneous air velocity and turbulence that are required for the evaluation and design of the ventilation system. In the other two-zone ventilated room configuration, contaminant particle concentration decay within the room was simulated and validated against the experimental data using the RNG LES model together with the Lagrangian model. The numerical results revealed that the particle-wall coll ision model has a considerable effect on the particle concentration prediction in the room. This research culminates with the development and implementation of particle-wall collision models and a stochastic wall roughness model in the Eulerian-Lagrangian model. This Eulerian-Lagrangian model was therefore used to simulate the gas-particle flow over an in-line tube bank. The numerical predictions showed that the wall roughness has a considerable effect by altering the rebounding behaviours of the large particles and consequently affecting the particles motion downstream along the in-line tube bank and particle impact frequency on the tubes. Also, the results demonstrated that for the large particles the particle phase velocity fluctuations are not influenced by the gas-phase fluctuations, but are predominantly determined by the particle-wall collision. For small particles, the influence of particle-wall collisions on the particle fluctuations can be neglected. Then, the effects of wall roughness on the gas-particle flow in a two-dimensional 90-degree bend were investigated. It was found that the wa ll roughness considerably altered the rebounding behaviours of particles by significantly reducing the 'particle free zone' and smoothing the particle number density profiles. The particle mean velocities were reduced and the particle fluctuating velocities were increased when taking into consideration the wall roughness, since the wall roughness produced greater randomness in the particle rebound velocities and trajectories.

<p>The aim was to study the prevalence of asthma, eczema, allergy and respiratory symptoms among pupils in Shanxi province, China, in relation to home and school environment and outdoor air pollution. In one study there was a low prevalence of self-reported asthma, eczema and pollen or pet allergy among pupils (9-20y). Rural childhood and consumption of fruit and fish were negatively associated with asthma or allergy, while current urban residency and consumption of hamburgers tended to be risk factors. In another study in junior high school pupils, similar low prevalence of asthma and allergy was found. Compared with pupils at the same age in Uppsala, Sweden, asthma and allergy were less common while daytime attacks of breathlessness were more common in Chinese pupils. Parental asthma or allergy was a predictor of asthma symptoms. Factors in the home environment such as new floor, new furniture and ETS exposure were risk factors for asthma symptoms. Crowdedness, dust amount, CO₂, temperature and air humidity were negatively associated with respiratory symptoms. Microbial chemical components like muramic acid and ergosterol, markers for bacteria and fungi, were negatively associated with wheeze or daytime attacks of breathlessness. The associations with endotoxin varied depending on the length of 3-hydroxy fatty acids of the lippopolysaccharides (LPS). Among outdoor air pollutants, SO₂ and formaldehyde were positively associated with asthma symptoms or respiratory infections. In addition, indoor SO₂, NO₂ and formaldehyde were positively associated with asthma symptoms and respiratory infections. In conclusion, rural childhood and dietary factors can be protective for asthma and allergy. ETS and chemical emissions from new material at home can be risk factors for asthmatic symptoms. In the school environment, factors of indoor origin seemed to be generally protective for respirator symptoms while factors of outdoor origin seemed to be risk factors.</p>

In this thesis the sink-effect in indoor materials wasstudied using mathematical modelling and experimental studies.The sink-effect is a concept which is commonly used tocharacterise the ability of different indoor materials to sorbcontaminants present in the indoor air. The sorption process ismore or less reversible, i.e. molecules sorbed in materials athigh contaminant concentrations may again be desorbed at lowerconcentrations. Knowledge of the sorption capacity of materialsand the rate at which sorption and desorption takes place is offundamental importance for mathematical simulation of indoorair quality. The aim of this work is to contribute withknowledge about how the sink-effect can be described inmathematical terms and how the interaction parametersdescribing the sorption capacity and sorption/desorptionkinetics can be determined. The work has been of amethodological nature. The procedure has been to set upphysically sound mathematical models of varying complexity andto develop small-scale chamber experiments. Two differentdynamic chamber methods have been used. One is based on amodified standard FLEC-chamber while the other uses a chamberwith two compartments, one on each side of the material. The"twin-compartment" method was designed due to the observationthat the contaminant readily permeated straight through theselected materials, which resulted in uncontrolled radiallosses in the FLEC-chamber. In order to be useful forcomparison between experiments and calculations and parameterfitting, the boundary conditions in the chambers must beprecisely known and controlled. This matter has shown to be themost crucial and difficult problem in the research. A varietyof mathematical models for the sink-effect have been proposed.In some models advanced fluid simulations were used in order totest the influence ofill-defined flow boundary conditions. Theaim of the modelling is to find a formulation with a minimum ofinteraction parameters, which is generally useful, i.e. both insmall-scale laboratory environments and in full-scale like anoffice room. Estimated model parameters are shown to be able toyield a reasonably good fit to experimental data for thesorption process but a less satisfactory fit for the desorptionprocess. <b>Keywords:</b>sink-effect, sorption, adsorption, diffusion,indoor air quality, volatile organic compounds, VOC,contaminants, building materials