IAQ for Students
There are many factors and considerations that can be assessed when it comes to the quality of a student's living environment. Many people point to things like temperature in the classroom, the books being used, the availability of materials, the quality of the teachers, the condition of the schools and so forth. However, one condition that is missed a lot of the time would be the indoor air quality (IAQ) of a school. Indeed, if the air quality is not good, this can cause breathing or even wider health issues for the students that are present in the school. Just a few examples of what can cause this problem are defective air conditioning, heater or blower units, dirty air filters and so forth. While there are many important considerations when it comes to the learning quality and health-related conditions of a school, indoor air quality should be near the top of any list of priorities.
Analysis
Many scholars and professionals have posed the question as to the importance of having good indoor air quality in the classroom. To be more specific, there are those that question whether having the proper indoor thermal conditions and/or carbon dioxide levels in a school lead to better or at least different health- and learning-related outcomes. One study on the subject took a look at nearly four hundred students ranging in age from nine to eleven years old. Of that group, nearly nine in ten (87%) responded to the associated survey and review. The students in question came from a total of fifteen classrooms in London primary schools. One startling statistic is that the rate of asthmatic symptoms and asthma attacks overall was much higher in urban school as compared to those that were in more suburban areas. Indeed, the rate was more than ten percent (10.2) in urban schools but it was only 1.5% in suburban schools over the same time period. It has been asserted that the "optimal" conditions for a classroom is a carbon dioxide density of less than one thousand parts per million (ppm) and that the prevailing temperature should be between 22 and 26 degrees Celsius. It should be noted that there are little to no regulations that regulate required temperature in the classrooms (in London or anywhere else) and/or the carbon dioxide levels in the same. Further, carbon dioxide is also heavily associated with climate change in general so regulations on carbon dioxide pollution would indirectly affect the air quality of students for the better (Chatzidiakou, Mumovic & Summerfield, 2015; Dias-Pereira, Raimondo, Corgnati & Gameiro de Silva, 2014).
Many people make much the same argument about indoor air quality when it comes to adult learning situations such as those at universities. Indeed, the age range for people in these learning situations is almost always eighteen-year-old and up. The author of this report found a study that focused specifically on the college air indoor quality subject. Rather than focus on optimal conditions in the eyes of the researchers, one particular study focused on perceived thermal comfort on the part of the students. They used two metrics, those being predicted mean vote (PMV) and predicted percent dissatisfied (PPD). The mean value of the PMV index rates were from 0.55 to -0.69 during both seasons in which measurements were taken. It should be noted that the environment in question had an air-exchange rate that was assured by a natural ventilation system. The PPD rates for the same measurement period ranged from 11.66 to 15.04%. A bit of context on those rates is that there was the influence of air conditioning and ventilation not to mention the opening and closing of manually operated windows in the associated buildings. Not unlike the prior study that related to primary schools in London, it was deciphered and decided that any temperature above the 27 degrees Celsius was beyond the acceptable and "comfortable" range. This is only one degree off of the range named for the primary schools. A secondary aim of the college study was to assess the optimal temperature and other conditions in the school (including air quality) that would lead to the best learning situations and outcomes for the students that were present at the school. Some have gone so far as to develop and use data modeling to find and keep such a balance. Once such model is known as the Transient System Simulation, or TRNSYS for short. This simulation and model makes use of the PMV and PPD indicators mentioned above and also helps measure the associated heating, cooling and air quality demands as they pertain to a certain environment....
Indoor Air Quality This report discusses viable options for reducing indoor pollutants in order to improve indoor air quality. This work focuses on three major concerns in regard to indoor air quality: poor ventilation, indoor smoking, and other indoor pollutants. The media bombards us daily with information regarding external pollution such as the emissions from automobiles, water contaminants, basic garbage and of course the smoke stacks of industry. But most
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References Blondeau, P., Tiffonnet, a.L., Damian, a., Amiri, O., and Molina, J.L. (2003). Assessment of contaminant diffusivities in building materials from porosimetry tests. Indoor Air, 13(3), 310-318. Daisey, J.M., Angell, W.J., and Apte, M.G. (2003). Indoor air quality, ventilation and health symptoms in schools: an analysis of existing information. Indoor Air, 13(1), 53-64. Fink a. (1998). Conducting research literature reviews: From paper to the Internet . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Overmeire, M.V., Verbrandt, F.J.R.
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