Human–Building Nexus: Indoor Environmental Quality and Human Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic
A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality and Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 4729
Special Issue Editors
Interests: indoor air quality; indoor airflow dynamics; building ventilation; bioaerosols
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: healthy buildings; human exposure; personal protective equipment; building ventilation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The nexus between indoor environmental quality and human health has been gathering more and more attention, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when most of the infections occur indoors. The infected people release the infectious aerosols which contain SARS-CoV-2 viruses in indoor air. Some measures for enhancing indoor air quality, in particular those reducing indoor airborne particles, are potentially effective in reducing the aerosol transmission of viruses. Ventilation can effectively dilute the indoor-originated indoor pollutants, such as formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, and pathogens of infectious diseases, and it is recommended to increase ventilation in order to prevent the indoor transmission of COVID-19. However, ventilation sometimes brings in the outdoor air, with unfavorable temperature, humidity, and outdoor pollutants, if the outdoor air is not well treated before introducing it indoors. The link between the air quality and the infection risk has made it possible to use bioeffluents, such as CO2 concentration, as indicators for the estimation of the infection risk in buildings. Even though measures to improve indoor air quality generally reduce the infection risk of COVID-19, some disinfection or cleaning measures potentially bring in unfavorable by-products such as ozone to occupied spaces, threatening human health. Beyond indoor air quality, evidence shows that indoor environment parameters, such as temperature, relative humidity, and lighting, also play important roles in determining the infectivity of the virus, thus impacting human health during the pandemic. Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the relationship between indoor environment quality and human health to the fore again, and a better understanding of this topic is required.
This Special Issue of Atmosphere will collect research efforts exploring the relationship between indoor environment quality and human health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We invite studies of both the change of indoor environmental quality due to COVID-19 measures and the impact of indoor environmental quality on COVID-19 transmission. Studies can be based on laboratory and climate chambers, field monitoring, simulation, and surveys. We also welcome review and position papers.
Dr. Jiayu Li
Dr. Zhengtao Ai
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- indoor air quality
- COVID-19
- airborne transmission
- indoor environment quality
- ventilation
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