IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i12p4280-d371791.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Can Design Features and Other Factors Affect the Indoor Air Quality in Inpatient Rooms? Check-Lists for the Design Phase, Daily Procedures and Maintenance Activities for Reducing the Air Concentrations of Chemical Pollution

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Gola

    (Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering Dept, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy)

  • Gaetano Settimo

    (Environment and Health Dept, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy)

  • Stefano Capolongo

    (Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering Dept, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is one of main topics of Public Health on which international institutions and countries are taking action. With regards to healing architectures, several studies have reported data analysis and case studies to improve users’ health (patients, and medical and administrative staffs), but there are not enough regarding volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Regarding chemical pollution of indoor air, the Scientific Community has highlighted that there are several factors that affect the IAQ, in particular the design and management, and energetic efficiency, of inpatient wards. Several stakeholders, from the designers to the managers, are responsible for the indoor air in healing environments. Supported by analysis of the State of the Art and the main factors that influence the heterogeneous scenario of inpatient wards, the paper presents three check-lists, designed for supporting the stakeholders during the design phase, or for the daily procedures and maintenance activities, for pre-assessment of factors that affect chemical pollution, and for the definition of strategies to be applied. In fact, in such environments IAQ assumes a particular meaning and importance, both for the vulnerability of the patients and for the long time spent by the sanitary staff. The multidisciplinary approach emphasizes the continuous need for interdisciplinary knowledge and skills aimed at finding solutions able to protect users’ health status (including patients, workers and visitors), especially in the field of the indoor air issue.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Gola & Gaetano Settimo & Stefano Capolongo, 2020. "How Can Design Features and Other Factors Affect the Indoor Air Quality in Inpatient Rooms? Check-Lists for the Design Phase, Daily Procedures and Maintenance Activities for Reducing the Air Concentra," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4280-:d:371791
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4280/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4280/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrea Rebecchi & Maddalena Buffoli & Marco Dettori & Letizia Appolloni & Antonio Azara & Paolo Castiglia & Daniela D’Alessandro & Stefano Capolongo, 2019. "Walkable Environments and Healthy Urban Moves: Urban Context Features Assessment Framework Experienced in Milan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Alice Borghini & Andrea Poscia & Silvia Bosello & Adele Anna Teleman & Mario Bocci & Lanfranco Iodice & Gianfranco Ferraccioli & Daniele Ignazio La Milìa & Umberto Moscato, 2017. "Environmental Pollution by Benzene and PM 10 and Clinical Manifestations of Systemic Sclerosis: A Correlation Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-8, October.
    3. Dell’Ovo, Marta & Capolongo, Stefano & Oppio, Alessandra, 2018. "Combining spatial analysis with MCDA for the siting of healthcare facilities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 634-644.
    4. Adrian Roderick Escombe & David A J Moore & Jon S Friedland & Carlton A Evans & Robert H Gilman, 2007. "Natural Ventilation for Prevention of Airborne Contagion: Authors' Reply," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(5), pages 1-2, May.
    5. Antonio Azara & Marco Dettori & Paolo Castiglia & Andrea Piana & Paolo Durando & Valentina Parodi & Giovanni Salis & Laura Saderi & Giovanni Sotgiu, 2018. "Indoor Radon Exposure in Italian Schools," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-9, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Minjung Cho, 2023. "Evaluating Therapeutic Healthcare Environmental Criteria: Architectural Designers’ Perspectives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-34, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrea Amerio & Andrea Brambilla & Alessandro Morganti & Andrea Aguglia & Davide Bianchi & Francesca Santi & Luigi Costantini & Anna Odone & Alessandra Costanza & Carlo Signorelli & Gianluca Serafini , 2020. "COVID-19 Lockdown: Housing Built Environment’s Effects on Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-10, August.
    2. Letizia Appolloni & Alberto Giretti & Maria Vittoria Corazza & Daniela D’Alessandro, 2020. "Walkable Urban Environments: An Ergonomic Approach of Evaluation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-31, October.
    3. Ashraf Abd El Karim & Mohsen M. Awawdeh, 2020. "Integrating GIS Accessibility and Location-Allocation Models with Multicriteria Decision Analysis for Evaluating Quality of Life in Buraidah City, KSA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, February.
    4. Oskar Jonsson & Joakim Frögren & Maria Haak & Björn Slaug & Susanne Iwarsson, 2021. "Understanding the Wicked Problem of Providing Accessible Housing for the Ageing Population in Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-21, January.
    5. Chen, Yi & Wang, Lianwen & Zhang, Jinhui, 2024. "Global asymptotic stability of an age-structured tuberculosis model: An analytical method to determine kernel coefficients in Lyapunov functional," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    6. Abbas Sheikh-Mohammad-Zadeh & Nicolas Saunier & E. O. D. Waygood, 2022. "Developing an Objective Framework to Evaluate Street Functions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-15, June.
    7. Ceren Erdin & Halil Emre Akbaş, 2019. "A Comparative Analysis of Fuzzy TOPSIS and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the Location Selection of Shopping Malls: A Case Study from Turkey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-22, July.
    8. Sotiropoulou, Kalliopi F. & Vavatsikos, Athanasios P. & Botsaris, Pantelis N., 2024. "A hybrid AHP-PROMETHEE II onshore wind farms multicriteria suitability analysis using kNN and SVM regression models in northeastern Greece," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    9. Noor Muhammad Abd Rahman & Lim Chin Haw & Ahmad Fazlizan, 2021. "A Literature Review of Naturally Ventilated Public Hospital Wards in Tropical Climate Countries for Thermal Comfort and Energy Saving Improvements," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-22, January.
    10. Ghavami, Seyed Morsal, 2019. "Multi-criteria spatial decision support system for identifying strategic roads in disaster situations," International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 23-36.
    11. Szu‐Chieh Chen & Chung‐Min Liao & Sih‐Syuan Li & Shu‐Han You, 2011. "A Probabilistic Transmission Model to Assess Infection Risk from Mycobacterium Tuberculosis in Commercial Passenger Trains," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 930-939, June.
    12. Michal Isaacson & Ashwin Tripathi & Tannistha Samanta & Lisa D’Ambrosio & Joseph Coughlin, 2020. "Giving Voice to the Environment as the Silent Partner in Aging: Examining the Moderating Roles of Gender and Family Structure in Older Adult Wellbeing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-19, June.
    13. Antonella Arghittu & Marco Dettori & Antonio Azara & Davide Gentili & Antonello Serra & Bruno Contu & Paolo Castiglia, 2020. "Flu Vaccination Attitudes, Behaviours, and Knowledge among Health Workers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-16, May.
    14. Katja Kojo & Päivi Kurttio, 2020. "Indoor Radon Measurements in Finnish Daycare Centers and Schools—Enforcement of the Radiation Act," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-9, April.
    15. Pradeep Shakya & Gimson Ng & Xiaoli Zhou & Yew Wah Wong & Swapnil Dubey & Shunzhi Qian, 2021. "Thermal Comfort and Energy Analysis of a Hybrid Cooling System by Coupling Natural Ventilation with Radiant and Indirect Evaporative Cooling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-19, November.
    16. Le Zhang & Xiaoxiao Xu & Yanlong Guo, 2022. "Comprehensive Evaluation of the Implementation Effect of Commercial Street Quality Improvement Based on AHP-Entropy Weight Method—Taking Hefei Shuanggang Old Street as an Example," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, November.
    17. Kelsey Gordon & Paul D. Terry & Xingxing Liu & Tiffany Harris & Don Vowell & Bud Yard & Jiangang Chen, 2018. "Radon in Schools: A Brief Review of State Laws and Regulations in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-9, September.
    18. Khaled Yousef Almansi & Abdul Rashid Mohamed Shariff & Bahareh Kalantar & Ahmad Fikri Abdullah & Sharifah Norkhadijah Syed Ismail & Naonori Ueda, 2022. "Performance Evaluation of Hospital Site Suitability Using Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) Models in Malacca, Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-36, March.
    19. Hal Levin, 2007. "Natural Ventilation for Prevention of Airborne Contagion: Conclusions Overgeneralized," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(5), pages 1-1, May.
    20. Reisi Marzieh & Nadoushan Mozhgan Ahmadi & Aye Lu, 2019. "Local walkability index: assessing built environment influence on walking," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 46(46), pages 7-21, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4280-:d:371791. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.