Use of Ventilation-Index in the Development of Exposure Model for Indoor Air Pollution—A Review

Krishnendu Mukhopadhyay, Rengaraj Ramasamy, Banani Mukhopadhyay, Santu Ghosh, Sankar Sambandam, Kalpana Balakrishnan

Department of Chemistry, Women’s Christian College, Chennai, India.
Department of Environmental Health Engineering, ICMR Center for Advanced Research on Environmental Health: Air Pollution, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, India.

DOI: 10.4236/ojap.2014.32004                

Abstract

In indoor environment, emission factor of the cooking fuel plays a vital role in determining correlation between exposure assessment and health effects. Both indoor and outdoor air pollution exposures are widely influenced by the ventilation status. An optimum control of the air change rate has also significant impact on the exposure pattern. A number of studies revealed that the indoor particulates and gaseous exposures, resulting from the combustion of various cooking fuels, are associated with significant adverse health effects on pregnant mothers and new born babies. The impacts of ventilation status on air pollution exposure in households’ kitchens or living rooms have not been explored enough. Except a few studies with concrete rooms, especially in industries, no other studies have been established on the correlation between the ventilation index and air pollution exposure. The intent of this review is to discuss reported findings focused on the ventilation and exposure to air pollution. This will obviously help better understanding to modulate exposure profile in household condition using simple tool of ventilation measurement.

Keywords

Ventilation Index, Exposure, Air Change Rate, Air Pollution, Health Effects

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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