June 2023 Member News

Lidia Morawska, QUT
Global air quality expert, and ISIAQ Academy member, Professor Lidia Morawska of QUT has received the prestigious 2023 L'Oréal-UNESCO for women in Science Laureate for the Asia and the Pacific. The Fondation L'Oréal and UNESCO announced five 2023 laureates of the For Women in Science International Awards. One June 15, the Fondation L'Oréal and UNESCO will honor these distinguished women scientists from five major regions of the world with exceptional careers for the their contributions to society in research in Physical sciences, Mathematics and Computer science.

Shelly Miller, University of Colorado Boulder
Shelly L. Miller—a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder—is the 121st recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Research Lectureship. The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors bestowed by the faculty upon a faculty member at CU Boulder. Dr. Miller gave the lecture on April 20, 2023 and it is now available on YouTube here.

Lecture overview: Every day we breathe in enough air to fill an entire swimming pool. On average, Americans spend 54 years of our lives in our homes, six years outdoors and four years in our cars. So, what is in the air we are breathing? We know that air pollution from traffic and industry, and chemicals from our everyday activities are in our air. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that even airborne viruses are in the air we breathe. While clean outdoor air and water are considered a public good, improved indoor air quality traditionally has not been seen in this light. Poor air quality seriously impacts our health including exacerbating asthma, cardiovascular diseases, lung diseases and cancer, and it impacts many of our communities disproportionately.

Professor Miller as dedicated her career to teaching about urban air pollution sources, their impacts, and what we can do to improve air quality and our health. In this talk, Miller will share her impactful research on indoor air quality in our homes, in our disproportionately impacted communities and during the COVID-19 pandemic. She will also share some of the important life lessons learned on her path to improving our air and health.

Viviana Gonzalez, EPFL
A PhD student Viviana Gonzalez, supervised by Dr. Dusan Licina, has recently defended her PhD Thesis entitled "Assessment of personal exposure to particle and gaseous air pollutants in residences and offices".

Abstract: Personal exposure that takes place both in outdoor and indoor environments is the result of dynamic processes and complex interactions between people and surroundings, contingent upon spatio-temporal variations of air pollutants and their diversity, source-receptor proximity, individual activities, and others. However, existing knowledge on the impact of air pollutants on human health is based on the results of epidemiological studies that associate data from morbidity and mortality with measurements from stationary ambient monitors, which may poorly resemble the inhaled air. Relative to outdoor measurement stations, indoor monitoring stations, typically limited to one location that hardly captures the effect of personal activities and proximity of emission sources, better correlate with daily human exposures. The personal cloud effect refers to an increment of pollutants concentration inhaled compared to stationary indoor or outdoor monitors; nevertheless, the nature and significance of this effect are not yet well understood despite existing studies pointing toward its significant impact on human daily exposures. Thus, understanding the dynamics of air pollutants in the human vicinity can help us better characterize inhalation exposures and identify and mitigate the underlying sources.

Three field campaigns were done in home and office environments in Switzerland: one, home and office campaign; second, office campaign; and third, home campaign during COVID-19 pandemic where participants worked from home. Overall, personal and indoor stationary real-time measurements were taken for CO2, particles (size range 0.3-10 µm) and total volatile compounds (TVOC), and time-integrated samples were taken for PM10, VOCs, aldehydes and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Participants' location and activities were monitored using a time activity diary application in the two home campaigns.

The main results from these studies show that using a time-activity diary or motion sensors can improve exposure estimation with indoor stationary monitors by selecting data when participants were present in the environments/rooms. The bedroom was the best location to monitor exposure to CO2 in residences and the living room for particles. Personal monitors recorded higher levels of CO2 and PM10 than indoor stations, confirming the existence of personal clouds. Home environments were the main contributors to daily exposure to CO2 and PM10. The personal cloud was detected in 29 VOCs and SVOCs in homes. Average personal measurements of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, butyraldehyde, hexaldehyde and propionaldehyde were higher in offices than in homes; nevertheless, TVOC levels were higher at homes. Through the three field campaigns, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of factors that affect personal exposure and the feasibility of exposure characterization by employing stationary indoor monitoring stations. Additionally, it proposes mitigation strategies for personal exposures and the improvement of monitoring techniques in residences and offices.

Wayne Morris, World Class Product Standards
Morris currently serves as the Secretary of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Standards SC59N which is developing performance test method standards for household and similar electrical air cleaning appliances. We are pleased to have over 130 experts from 22 countries involved in this effort. IEC 63086 Part 1 was published in 2020 setting the general conditions for testing. This year we intend to publish IEC 63086 Part 2-1 on reduction of particulate pollution. We have 13 working groups involved in developing standards for reduction of particles, chemical gases, micro-organisms (including virus), sound measurement, power/energy & energy efficiency, fresh-air air cleaners, reduction of ozone, measurement of performance change with system loading, automatic mode, robotic and automobile passenger vehicle air cleaners.

Morris was awarded the 1906 Award in 2020. The IEC 1906 Awards were established in commemoration of the foundation of the IEC and honors technical experts around the world whose work is fundamental to the IEC.