Browsing by Author "Aguiar, Lívia"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ARIA Project – Indoor air biological assessment in primary schoolsPublication . Aguiar, Lívia; Pereira, Cristiana; Mendes, Ana; Neves, Paula; Teixeira, João PauloChildren are considered a susceptible group due to their particularly vulnerability to the development of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, and also the amount of time they spend inside classrooms, reasons why they deserve priority attention in indoor air quality studies.
- Biological air assessment in primary schools - The ARIA ProjectPublication . Aguiar, Lívia; Pereira, Cristiana; Mendes, Ana; Neves, Paula; Teixeira, João PauloExposure and sensitization to indoor allergens are important risk factors for asthma and allergic respiratory diseases, playing a key role in triggering and exacerbating allergy and asthma symptoms in children (Salo et al., 2009). While children’s greatest exposure to indoor allergens is at home, other public places where they spend a large amount of time, such as primary schools, may also be sources of significant allergen encounters (Abramson et al. , 2006), such as bacteria and fungi. Children are considered a susceptible group because they are particularly vulnerable to the development of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, and also spend much of their time inside classrooms, in a confined atmosphere, reasons why they should deserve priority attention in indoor air quality (IAQ) studies. In Portugal, this is an increasing and important subject, proved by the development of studies in this area, more sorely since the publication of the national legislation, Ordinance no. 353-A/2013 of December 4th, that establish reference values of maximum concentration for selected indoor air pollutants. The results of this project are part of an ongoing project (ARIA Project), that intend to study the exposure of children to indoor air in 20 public primary schools and investigate the associated respiratory and allergic related health effects in 1600 children’s.
- Biological air contamination in elderly care centers: GERIA ProjectPublication . Aguiar, Lívia; Mendes, Ana; Pereira, Cristiana; Neves, Paula; Mendes, Diana; Teixeira, João PauloHealthcare organizations throughout the world have an increasing concern about how to cope with a quickly aging population (Caley & Sidhu, 2011). This trend explains the increasing demand of long-term care services (Damiani et al ., 2009) such as Elderly Care Centers (ECCs) (Kembel et al ., 2012). In Portugal, the number of ECCs increased 49% between 1998 and 2010. Furthermore, considering that elders often spend a considerable portion of their lives indoors, enhanced by they reduced independency, it is clear that the possibility that adverse indoor climate can influence their health status cannot be ignored (Almeida-Silva et al ., 2014). It has been estimated that older persons spend about 19-20 hours per day indoors and the majority spend all of their time inside the ECCs. Older persons may be particularly at risk of detrimental effects from pollutants, even at low concentrations, due to their common and multiple underlying chronic diseases that increases their susceptibility. It is extremely important to assess elderly exposure to biological pollutants due to the adverse health effects caused by biological agents to this susceptible population present in ECCs, enhanced by the time these people spend indoors.
- Sound exposure of music students during the classesPublication . Rodrigues, Matilde; Amorim, Marta; Vieira da Silva, Manuela; Rodrigues, Cristina; Aguiar, Lívia; Neves, Paula; Sousa, Aida; Inácio, OctávioIt is broadly recognized that professional musicians are at risk of developing ear pathologies due to the exposition to loud music in the course of rehearsals and performances (MacDonald et al ., 2008; O’Brien et al ., 2008; Jansen et al ., 2009). However, while much has been published regarding the sound exposure of professional musicians, particularly of orchestral musicians, little is known of the sound exposure of the music students. In fact, it is important to recognize that the musicians’ noise exposure may start very early, in the course of their training as students, in the school classrooms and at homes.