Volume 32, Issue 7 e13068
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Indoor environmental quality in naturally ventilated schools of a dusty region: Excess health risks and effect of heating and desert dust transport

Cagri Sahin

Cagri Sahin

Department of Environmental Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey

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Tuba Rastgeldi Dogan

Corresponding Author

Tuba Rastgeldi Dogan

Department of Environmental Engineering, Harran University, Sanliurfa, Turkey

Correspondence

Tuba Rastgeldi Dogan, Department of Environmental Engineering, Harran University, Sanliurfa, Turkey.

Email: [email protected]

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Melek Yildiz

Melek Yildiz

Department of Environmental Engineering, Harran University, Sanliurfa, Turkey

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Sait C. Sofuoglu

Sait C. Sofuoglu

Department of Environmental Engineering, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey

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First published: 19 July 2022
Citations: 10

Abstract

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is impacted by polluted outdoor air in naturally ventilated schools, especially in places where both anthropogenic and natural sources of ambient air pollution exist. CO2, PM2.5, PM10, temperature, relative humidity (RH), and noise were measured in five naturally ventilated primary schools in City of Sanliurfa, in a dusty region of Turkey, Southeast Anatolia. Excess risk levels were estimated for particulate matter. Investigation was conducted through an educational year including two seasons in terms of anthropogenic effect, that is, heating/non-heating, and natural effect, that is, desert dust transport/non-dust transport. The median CO2 concentration was measured to be >1000 ppm in all seasons/schools. Temperature and RH fell out of the comfort zone in October–December, during which pollutant concentrations were considerably increased, specifically in November, that heating and dust transport periods coincide. The overall mean indoor PM10 and PM2.5 levels were 58 and 31.8 μg/m3, respectively. Risk assessment indicate that both short (incidence of asthma symptoms in asthmatic children) and long-term (prevalence of bronchitis) effects are considerable with 10.9 (2.4–19.6)% and 19.5 (2.2–38.8)%, respectively. The findings suggest that mechanical ventilation retrofitting with particle filtration is needed to mitigate potential negative health consequences on children.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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