Article pubs.acs.org/est
Endotoxins in Indoor Air and Settled Dust in Primary Schools in a Subtropical Climate Heidi Salonen,*,†,‡ Caroline Duchaine,§,∥ Valérie Létourneau,∥ Mandana Mazaheri,† Sam Clifford,†,⊥ and Lidia Morawska*,† †
International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane Q 4001, Australia ‡ Developing Indoor Environments, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Topeliuksenkatu 41 aA, 00250 Helsinki, Finland § Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bio-informatics,Université Laval, 2325, rue de l’Université Québec (Québec) G1 V 0A6, Canada ∥ Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, 2725, chemin Sainte-Foy, Québec (Québec) G1 V 4G5, Canada ⊥ Centre for Air Quality & Health Research and Evaluation, 431 Glebe Point Rd., Glebe 2037, Australia S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Endotoxins can significantly affect the air quality in school environments. However, there is currently no reliable method for the measurement of endotoxins, and there is a lack of reference values for endotoxin concentrations to aid in the interpretation of measurement results in school settings. We benchmarked the “baseline” range of endotoxin concentration in indoor air, together with endotoxin load in floor dust, and evaluated the correlation between endotoxin levels in indoor air and settled dust, as well as the effects of temperature and humidity on these levels in subtropical school settings. Bayesian hierarchical modeling indicated that the concentration in indoor air and the load in floor dust were generally (
