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Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Indoor air quality in healthcare units has relevant impacts on patient safety and the occupational health and safety of healthcare professionals. Indoor air contamination, caused by outdoor pollutants, indoor activities, building materials, or furniture, is of high concern in healthcare facilities due to the fragility of their occupants’ health. Therefore, the need to adequately manage indoor air quality in healthcare facilities is of the utmost importance and cannot be compromised, especially considering the new challenges regarding the prevention of airborne infections caused by the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to encourage the sharing of research studies focused on emergent threats to indoor air quality in healthcare units, as well as the sharing of best management practices regarding these new challenges.

The Editors of this Special Issue encourage submissions addressing topics and issues such as the following:

Indoor air quality management practices in healthcare units, in the COVID-19 pandemic context;
New technologies to improve indoor air quality in healthcare units;
Indoor air quality surveillance in healthcare units;
Health impacts of indoor air pollutants in the context of healthcare units;
Indoor air contamination due to disinfecting chemicals used in healthcare units;
Identification and mitigation of occupational health and safety hazards for healthcare professionals in the scope of indoor environmental quality;
Impacts of indoor air quality on patients’ healing processes;
Indoor/outdoor correlations for air pollutants with relevance for healthcare facilities;
Secondary indoor air pollutants in healthcare facilities: sources and potential hazards.

Prof. Ana Fonseca
Prof. Nelson Barros
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

indoor air quality
healthcare units
patient safety
occupational health and safety
health impacts
COVID-19
airborne infections
airborne transmission
hospital ventilation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 8381 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Smart Wireless Particulate Matter Sensor Node for IoT-Based Strategic Monitoring Tool of Indoor COVID-19 Infection Risk via Airborne Transmission

by C. Bambang Dwi Kuncoro, Cornelia Adristi and Moch Bilal Zaenal Asyikin

Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14433; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114433 - 03 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1935

Abstract

Indoor and outdoor air pollution are associated with particulate matter concentration of minute size that deeply penetrates the human body and leads to significant problems. These particles led to serious health problems and an increased spread of infection through airborne transmission, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the role of particulate matter during the spread of COVID-19, this paper presents a smart wireless sensor node for measuring and monitoring particulate matter concentrations indoors. Data for these concentrations were obtained and used as a risk indicator for airborne COVID-19 transmission. The sensor node was designed to consider air quality monitoring device requirements for indoor applications, such as real-time, continuous, reliable, remote, compact-sized, low-cost, low-power, and accessible. Total energy consumption of the node during measurement and monitoring of particulate matter concentration was minimized using a low-power algorithm and a cloud storage system embedded during software development. Therefore, the sensor node consumed low energy for one cycle of the particulate matter measurement process. This low-power strategy was implemented as a preliminary design for the autonomous sensor node that enables it to integrate with an energy harvester element to harvest energy from ambient (light, heat, airflow) and store energy in the supercapacitor, which extends the sensor node life. Furthermore, the measurement data can be accessed using the Internet of Things and visualized graphically and numerically on a graphical user interface. The test and measurement results showed that the developed sensor node had very small measurement error, which was promising and appropriate for indoor particulate matter concentration measurement and monitoring, while data results were utilized as strategic tools to minimize the risk of airborne COVID-19 transmission. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management of Indoor Air Quality in Healthcare Units)

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Review

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17 pages, 5069 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Indoor Air Quality in Healthcare Units—A Systematic Literature Review Focusing Recent Research

by Ana Fonseca, Isabel Abreu, Maria João Guerreiro and Nelson Barros

Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 967; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020967 - 15 Jan 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4125

Abstract

The adequate assessment and management of indoor air quality in healthcare facilities is of utmost importance for patient safety and occupational health purposes. This study aims to identify the recent trends of research on the topic through a systematic literature review following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology. A total of 171 articles published in the period 2015–2020 were selected and analyzed. Results show that there is a worldwide growing research interest in this subject, dispersed in a wide variety of scientific journals. A textometric analysis using the IRaMuTeQ software revealed four clusters of topics in the sampled articles: physicochemical pollutants, design and management of infrastructures, environmental control measures, and microbiological contamination. The studies focus mainly on hospital facilities, but there is also research interest in primary care centers and dental clinics. The majority of the analyzed articles (85%) report experimental data, with the most frequently measured parameters being related to environmental quality (temperature and relative humidity), microbiological load, CO₂ and particulate matter. Non-compliance with the WHO guidelines for indoor air quality is frequently reported. This study provides an overview of the recent literature on this topic, identifying promising lines of research to improve indoor air quality in healthcare facilities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Management of Indoor Air Quality in Healthcare Units)

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