Associations Between Indoor Air Pollutants In Kindergarten And Children’s Health In Nanjing

With the improvement of economy and living standards in recent years, indoor decoration materials are widely used, resulting in the rise of indoor pollutants concentrations (such as formaldehyde, benzene, toluene and so on), which may cause some threat on human health. Children, as a vulnerable group, are more susceptible to disease under the same exposure levels, for that their immune system is relatively weak compared with that of adults. Kindergarten, as one of the main place for children to learn and live, good indoor air quality is significantly important to children’s health.This study is mainly divided into two parts:the impact of indoor air pollutants on children asthma and other allergies and research on children’s VOC exposure in kindergartens all the year round. Eight (8) kindergartens were selected for measurements of pollutants and 1590 children in these kindergartens were involved in CCHH questionnaire survey. Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze correlation between pollutants and childhood asthma and other allergies. For further reaction of children’s exposure, throughout the year in kindergartens, research on levels of pollutants in. kindergartens throughout the year were studied in this paper through simulation of VOC emission form indoor building materials.Through correlation analysis, microorganisms were found positively related to childhood asthma and other allergies(P≤0.05). Compared with microorganism in relatively low level, microorganism in relatively high level was positively associated with childhood rhinitis (aOR 1.59,95%CI 1.08-2.32) and the prevalence of childhood rhinitis for children exposed to microorganisms in relatively high level was higher than that in relatively low level (>597.6cfu/m3 vs.<597.6 cfu/m3:10.7% vs.6.2%). Similar results were found for childhood pneumonia, childhood dry cough, childhood eczema and microorganisms.Through prediction of children’s VOC exposure in kindergartens all the year round, concentrations of indoor pollutants were found relatively high during the winter and summer vacation, while relatively low during class in kindergartens. This was mainly because the window was open during class, which could greatly reduce the concentration of indoor air pollutants. Children’s VOC exposure which was predicted by the model could be used to further analyze the correlation between pollutants and diseases. In addition, children’s VOC exposure all the year round in different ventilation conditions was studied using this model. Promoting ventilation could significantly reduce indoor pollutants levels if outdoor air quality is good, which could reduce children’s exposure all the year round.