Elderly exposure to indoor air pollutants
Introduction
Several works have been studied the relation between atmospheric pollutants and human health risks (Martinelli et al., 2013, Viegi et al., 2004, Jones, 1999). Although indoor concentration and number of carcinogenic air pollutants has been decreased since the 1950s (Weschler, 2009), the changes on life-style and the fact that people spend a large part of their life inside the indoor environments have promoted an increase on exposure to indoor air pollutants (Byčenkienė et al., 2009, Dales et al., 2008, Leech et al., 2002). Consequently, we are assisting an increase of studies developed by the scientific community concerning indoor air quality (IAQ) and its effects upon health (Canha et al., 2012a, Franck et al., 2011, Almeida et al., 2011, World Health Organization, 2010, Canha et al., 2010, Saliba et al., 2009, Fraga et al., 2008, Fromme et al., 2007, Kosonen and Tan, 2004, Lee et al., 2002, Spengler and Wilson, 1996, Allen and Miguel, 1995). However, the exposure assessment that should be estimated by the time spent by people in different environments and the concentration of the pollutants for the period of interest (ILO et al., 2000, Sexton et al., 1995) is rarely estimated.
According to the United Nations (2012) the percentage of total population aged 60 years or over in the Europe was 22% for the year 2012 and prospects 34% for 2050 (United Nations, 2012). Europe presents the highest percentages of old people worldwide, being Africa the continent with the lowest percentage of population with more than 60 years (United Nations, 2012). Portugal is the 8th oldest country in the world and the 6th in Europe, with 23% of population with more than 60 years old. In Portugal, the number of Elderly Care Centers (ECCs) increased 49% between 1998 and 2010 (GEP/MSSS, 2010). In general, people spend about 19–20 h indoors (Zhao et al., 2009, Bruinen de Bruin et al., 2004, Saksena et al., 2003, Klepeis et al., 2001) and these values increase considering the elders living in ECCs, since their independency is reduced (Bradshaw et al., 2012). By all of these reasons and also by the fact that elder people are considered a susceptible group, along children, sick and pregnant people, mitigate their exposure to air pollutants becomes increasingly important (Almeida et al., 2011, Canha et al., 2011, Pegas et al., 2011a, Pegas et al., 2011b).
The main goal of this work was to characterize the IAQ in ECCs in order to assess the elders' daily exposure to air pollutants.
Section snippets
Material and methodologies
The current study was carried out in 10 ECCs, located in Lisbon and Loures, District of Lisbon (Fig. 1).
Time occupancy by elders
Fig. 3a shows the time spent by the elders in each micro-environment. Due to the lack of differences between weekdays and weekends, the results are presented for typical 24 h. Fig. 3b indicates that elders living in the studied ECCs spend in average 95% of their time indoors. The micro-environment referred as “Others” is defined as other indoor micro-environments inside and/or outside the elderly care centers, such as family houses, restaurants or coffees. A study developed in Italy showed that
Conclusions
Results from this work clearly showed that exposure to indoor air pollutants is a current problem that is necessary to be aware.
The developed time-budget survey showed that elders living in ECCs spend 95% of their time indoors and this value increased in institutions with higher number of bedridden.
Only one of the ECCs was equipped with mechanical ventilation and consequently ventilation rates showed to be insufficient to promote air exchange and to dilute the concentration of indoor air
Acknowledgments
The study would not be possible without the assistance of the Câmara Municipal de Loures, by Dr. Luzia Sousa and Dr. Beatriz Reis. We gratefully acknowledge Prof. Dr. Susana Viegas and Prof. Dr. Carla Viegas of Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa (ESTeSL), Portugal, for providing a set of equipments. We also gratefully acknowledge Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for funding M. Almeida-Silva by PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/69700/2010).
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