Search results for "indoor environment"
showing 10 items of 18 documents
BIOAEROSOL
2017
Cultural heritage constitutive materials can provide excellent substrates for microbial colonisation, highly influenced by thermo-hygrometric parameters. In cultural heritage-related environments, a detrimental microbial load may be present both on manufact surface and in the aerosol. Confined environments (museums, archives, deposits, caves, hypogea) have peculiar structures and dif- ferent thermo-hygrometric parameters, influencing the development of a wide range of microbial species, able to induce artefact biodeterioration and to release biological particles in the aerosol (spores, cellular debrides, toxins, allergens) potentially dangerous for the human health (visitors/users). In orde…
Knowledge and training needs on built environment and indoor health of Italian public health residents: a national survey
2017
Introduction The Working Group for Hygiene of Built Environment and the National Council of Residents of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health conducted a nation-wide survey to evaluate the knowledge and training needs on built environment and indoor health of Italian public health residents. Results The compliance was very high (52,4%) covering all the Italian postgraduate schools. The results underline important lacks of theoretical formation and practical training, but also a certain inhomogeneity across the country and show a strong interest of residents on this topic. Conclusions The authors propose the adoption a national core curriculum and suggest som…
Conflicting needs of the thermal indoor environment of museums: In search of a practical compromise
2008
Thermal indoor microclimate conditions in museum buildings refer to two important requirements: the preservation of works of art and the comfort of visitors to these buildings and/or those working inside them. Unfortunately, different works of art have different internal parameters which render the management and control of the indoor thermal microclimate difficult. In this work the values proposed by various standards for the thermal environment of museum buildings have been revised. Moreover, the indoor microclimatic conditions relating to people's comfort have been described, with the aim of singling out possible common ranges for these parameters. With this aim, a useful simultaneousnes…
Indoor air quality of everyday use spaces dedicated to specific purposes—a review
2017
According to literature data, some of the main factors which significantly affect the quality of the indoor environment in residential households or apartments are human activities such as cooking, smoking, cleaning, and indoor exercising. The paper presents a literature overview related to air quality in everyday use spaces dedicated to specific purposes which are integral parts of residential buildings, such as kitchens, basements, and individual garages. Some aspects of air quality in large-scale car parks, as a specific type of indoor environment, are also discussed. All those areas are characterized by relatively short time use. On the other hand, high and very high concentration level…
Indoor Environmental Quality Survey: A Brief Comparison between Different Post Occupancy Evaluation Methods
2013
Building occupants are important factor in giving information on indoor conditions such as comfort, productivity, building performance and occupants ́ health. Even that, being their appraisal mainly based on subjective judgments, it is difficult to set up a standard and objective method for this purpose. The present work aimed to describe, analyze and compare the most common tests on this topic, in order to highlight critical, failings and strengths.
IL COMFORT INDOOR, STRUMENTI LEGISLATIVI: PANORAMA LEGISLATIVO INTERNAZIONALE E NAZIONALE
2022
Già da qualche decennio si parla di IEQ (Indoor Environmental Quality) con particolare attenzione sulla salubrità dell’ambiente costruito e alla sua possibile influenza sulla sostenibilità ambientale. Tale interesse si è riversato per lo più sulla qualità dei prodotti e delle tecnologie dell’edilizia, incentrando la questione sulle prestazioni di essi e sugli effetti ambientali che essi generano. Con gli obiettivi previsti dall’Agenda 2030 si supera l’idea che la sostenibilità sia una prerogativa ambientale e si afferma una visione olistica mirata alla salute umana (obiettivo 3), emergendo la necessità di un passaggio da un approccio “Green” al costruito verso un approccio “Human Centred” c…
Indoor Comfort in School Buildings: The Case Study of Palermo
2014
Buildings primary energy consumption in developed countries accounts for about 40% of whole uses. Therefore, the European Union has released many regulations, concerning energy saving issues; particularly, it has enacted Directive 2002/91/EC regarding the energy performance of buildings, and its Recast Directive 2010/31/EU, that promotes the Nearly Zero Energy Building targets, introducing more strict parameters in this aim. Furthermore, the latter Directive asks Member States to include within their national plans measures aimed at supporting public authorities to become early adopters of building energy efficiency improvements. In the same time, Public Authorities should implement effecti…
Third-hand smoke exposure and health hazards in children
2013
Smoking still represents a huge public health problem. Millions of children suffer the detrimental effects of passive smoking. An increasing number of countries have recently issued laws to regulate smoking in public places. Instead, homes remain a site where children are dangerously exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). The combination of tobacco smoke pollutants which remain in an indoor environment, the so-called ‘third-hand smoke’ (THS), represent a new concept in the field of tobacco control. THS consists of pollutants that remain on surfaces and in dust after tobacco has been smoked, are re-emitted into the gas-phase, or react with other compounds in the environment to form se…
Energy Performance and Indoor Comfort of a 1930s Italian School Building: A case study
2021
Reducing energy consumption in the building tertiary sector, which accounts for a big share of the total energy use (and related CO 2 emissions) at European and Italian level, represent a strong element of safety for the EU-28. On the other hand, it is important to improve the, often overlooked, indoor comfort conditions of Italian schools since they have a significant impact on the well-being, productivity, health and safety of their occupants. Thus, it is appropriate to take into account the combination of both needs, also in light of the climate change scenario, in order to identify adequate improvement measures and justify such economic investment. This paper brings a contribution to th…
The role of weather data files in Climate-based Daylight Modeling
2015
Abstract This paper illustrates the results of daylight simulations of a simple standalone office carried out using different weather data files (IWEC, Meteonorm, Satel-Light and TRY), for five European locations (Copenhagen, London, Milan, Nancy, Rome). The aim was to analyze the impact of choosing one weather file or another on the prediction of daylight availability in an indoor environment. Results were analyzed both in terms of Annual and Monthly Light Exposures and dynamic daylight performance metrics. It was demonstrated that IWEC, Meteonorm and Satel-Light weather files determine similar outcomes, instead TRY weather data always produces considerably lower values. Moreover the diffe…