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Indoor air quality in schools

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Abstract

In recent years, the use of synthetic materials in building and furnishing, the adoption of new lifestyles, the extensive use of products for environmental cleaning and personal hygiene have contributed to the deterioration of indoor air quality and introduced new sources of risk to humans. Indoor environments include home, workplaces such as offices, public buildings such as hospitals, schools, kindergartens, sports halls, libraries, restaurants and bars, theaters and cinemas and finally cabins of vehicles. Indoor environments in schools have been of particular public concern. According to recent studies, children aged between 3 and 14 spend 90 % of the day indoors both in winter and summer. Moreover, children have greater susceptibility to some environmental pollutants than adults, because they breathe higher volumes of air relative to their body weights, and their tissues and organs are actively growing. In this review, the authors explore the methodological approaches used for the assessment of air quality in schools: monitoring strategies, sampling and analysis techniques and summarizing an overview of main findings from scientific literature concerning the most common pollutants found in school environments.

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  1. Chemistry Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Gianluigi de Gennaro, Annamaria Demarinis Loiotile, Pasquale Giungato, Annalisa Marzocca, Jolanda Palmisani & Francesca Porcelli

  2. Apulia Regions Environmental Protection Agency (ARPA Puglia), Corso Trieste 27, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Gianluigi de Gennaro, Paolo Rosario Dambruoso, Alessia Di Gilio & Maria Tutino

  3. LEnviroS srl, Spin Off of University of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Antonio Mazzone

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  1. Gianluigi de Gennaro
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de Gennaro, G., Dambruoso, P.R., Loiotile, A.D. et al. Indoor air quality in schools. Environ Chem Lett 12, 467–482 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-014-0470-6

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