Monitoring and assessment of CO2 and NO2 in schools within the Sentinel Schools Network of Catalonia during the COVID-19 era

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• dc.contributor.author Subirana, Maria
• dc.contributor.author Sunyer Deu, Jordi
• dc.contributor.author Colom-Cadena, Andreu
• dc.contributor.author Bordas, Anna
• dc.contributor.author Casabona, Jordi
• dc.contributor.author Gascon Merlos, Mireia, 1984-
• dc.date.accessioned 2024-07-19T07:11:32Z
• dc.date.available 2024-07-19T07:11:32Z
• dc.date.issued 2024
• dc.description.abstract In response to the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, international and national authorities, including those in Catalonia (Spain), recognized the crucial need to ensure proper ventilation in classrooms, emphasizing the importance of safe and healthy indoor environments for face-to-face learning. The present work, conducted within the COVID-19 Sentinel Schools Network of Catalonia (CSSNC) framework, aimed to monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in 23 schools, ensuring a comprehensive sample regarding educational levels, daily scholar schedules, and classroom typologies distributed across the four provinces of Catalonia. The research spanned three study periods: March and April 2021, October 2021 to January 2022, and March to June 2022. Briefly, 28%, 25%, and 37% of classrooms surpassed the 700 parts per million (ppm) CO2 limit in each study period, respectively. Generally, CO2 averages were lower in preschool classrooms (mean ± SD = 486 ± 106 ppm), while high school classrooms displayed the highest CO2 concentrations (mean ± SD = 710 ± 253 ppm). Moreover, classrooms in towns (<30000 inhabitants) exhibited higher CO2 levels as compared to classrooms from schools located in cities. As for NO2, the highest averages were obtained in urban areas, particularly in the Barcelona metropolitan area (e.g. mean indoor levels of 24.56 μg m-3 as compared to 11.05 μg m-3 in towns). In addition, the Indoor/Outdoor ratio (I/O ratio) in towns was the lowest (0.60). These results, together with the higher concentration of CO2 indoors, could indicate poorer ventilation in town schools. The results of this study are anticipated to contribute to implementing evidence-based measures to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) in educational settings.
• dc.description.sponsorship This work was supported by Ministry of Health from Government of Catalonia with no grant number. Mireia Gascon holds a Miguel Servet fellowship (Grant CP19/00183) funded by Acción Estratégica de Salud - Instituto de Salud Carlos III, co-funded by European Social Fund “Investing in your future”. ISGlobal acknowledges support from the grant CEX2018-000806-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and support from Government of Catalonia through the CERCA Program.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Subirana M, Sunyer J, Colom-Cadena A, Bordas A, Casabona J, Gascon M. Monitoring and assessment of CO2 and NO2 in schools within the Sentinel Schools Network of Catalonia during the COVID-19 era. Chemosphere. 2024 Jun 7;362:142575. DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142575
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.142575
• dc.identifier.issn 0045-6535
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/60797
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Elsevier
• dc.relation.ispartof Chemosphere. 2024 Jun 7;362:142575
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PE/CEX2018-000806-S
• dc.rights © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Classroom
• dc.subject.keyword Indoor air quality
• dc.subject.keyword SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk mitigation
• dc.subject.keyword School re-opening
• dc.title Monitoring and assessment of CO2 and NO2 in schools within the Sentinel Schools Network of Catalonia during the COVID-19 era
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion