Environment and health in children day care centres results from phase I - preliminary analysis of buildings physical characteristics

Abstract

The need for studies on the relation between buildings physical characteristics and the indoor environment in children day care centres led an interdisciplinary team of researchers to develop the project ENVIRH (Environment and Health in children day care centres), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). The project team proposed to study the physical characteristics of the buildings, their indoor environment and children's health. As part of the project, 45 private institutions for social care, located in the urban areas of Lisbon and Oporto, were randomly selected and invited to participate. The schools, attended approximately by 3000 children, correspond to 25 schools located in Lisbon (selected among 89) and 20 located in Oporto (selected among 55). The survey of the buildings physical characteristics, which included the type of construction, typology of the windows and ventilation practice, was complemented by indoor and outdoor direct readings of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, ambient air temperature and relative humidity. In the survey campaign, the CO2 concentrations obtained indoors exceeded 1800 mg/m3 in 92% of schools in Lisbon and 90% of schools in Oporto. The factors that influenced the CO2 concentration were analysed statistically by using a multiple linear regression model and the results suggest a very significant association between CO2 concentrations and window position - opened or closed (p<0,001) and window characteristics - type of window gaskets (p=0,012) and type of moving leaf (p< 0,001), as well as between CO2 concentrations and ventilation practice (p<0,001). A level of significance α=0.05 was considered. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the preliminary results obtained in this study.