Indoor environment in children’s dwellings in Dalian and Beijing, China

Abstract

In 2013, field measurements of indoor environments in children’s (from 8 to 12 years old) dwellings were performed in 20 households in Dalian and Beijing to investigate the association between indoor environmental factors and children’s health. This study includes comprehensive factors about indoor environment in children’s dwellings in Dalian and Beijing and the exposure levels of multiple pollutants. The results showed that the indoor thermal environments were similar in Dalian and Bejing. Regarding children’s indoor air quality, indoor PM_2.5 in Beijing was more serious than that in Dalian. Dwellings in Dalian have more chemical pollutants than those in Beijing. In addition, Penicillium, Cladosporium, and Aspergillus were found as the main fungi in children’s dwellings. Moverover, indoor thermal comfort in healthy children’s dwellings was better than in unhealthy children’s. The indoor PM_2.5 from indoor sources may affect children’s health with regard to respiratory diseases and allergies more than those from outdoor sources. When the concentration of formaldehyde got higher, the relationship between formaldehyde and children’s health was more significant. The other factors were not found to have a significant relation with children’s health.

Funding

This research was supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 24404019), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (DUT18JC21), the China Environmental Protection Project (No. 201509063), and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 51308088, No. 51578103 and No. 91743102).