Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Place of Publication

United States

School

School of Science

RAS ID

19839

Funders

Clean Air Regulatory Agenda (CARA)

Comments

MacNeill, M., Dobbin, N., St-Jean, M., Wallace, L., Marro, L., Shin, T., & Wheeler, A.J. (2016). Can changing the timing of outdoor air intake reduce indoor concentrations of traffic-related pollutants in schools? Indoor Air, 26(5), 687-701.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12252

Abstract

Traffic emissions have been associated with a wide range of adverse health effects. Many schools are situated close to major roads, and as children spend much of their day in school, methods to reduce traffic-related air pollutant concentrations in the school environment are warranted. One promising method to reduce pollutant concentrations in schools is to alter the timing of the ventilation so that high ventilation time periods do not correspond to rush hour traffic. Health Canada, in collaboration with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, tested the effect of this action by collecting traffic-related air pollution data from four schools in Ottawa, Canada, during October and November 2013. A baseline and intervention period was assessed in each school. There were statistically significant (P < 0.05) reductions in concentrations of most of the pollutants measured at the two late-start (9 AM start) schools, after adjusting for outdoor concentrations and the absolute indoor–outdoor temperature difference. The intervention at the early-start (8 AM start) schools did not have significant reductions in pollutant concentrations. Based on these findings, changing the timing of the ventilation may be a cost-effective mechanism of reducing traffic-related pollutants in late-start schools located near major roads.

DOI

10.1111/ina.12252

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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