Human Response to 78-Hour Exposure to Dry Air

Andersen, Ib; Lundqvist, Gunnar; Jensen, Poul; Proctor, Donald F.

doi:10.1080/00039896.1974.10666606

Cited by 95 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…As could be expected from the literature of studies in other environments (Nevins, Rohles, Springer & Feyerherm, 1966;Grandjean & Rhiner, 1963; Franzen, 1969;Rasmussen, 1971;Andersen, Lundqvist, Jensen & Proctor, 1974) no effect of humidity appeared in the multiple regression equations for thermal comfort. However, in order to examine whether or not the patients had detected different levels of humidity as humidity differences per 8e, these equations were recalculated with the patients' humidity votes as the dependent variable.…”

Section: Humidity Considerationssupporting

confidence: 63%

Thermal comfort of patients in hospital ward areas

Smith

Rae

1977

J. Hyg.

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SUNMMARYThe patient is identified as being of prime importanc3 for comfort standards in hospital ward areas, other ward users being expected to adjust their dress to suit the conditions necessary for patient comfort. A study to identify the optimum steady state conditions for patient comfort is then described.Although this study raises some doubts as to the applicability of the standard thermal comfort assement techniques to ward areas, it is felt that its results give a good indication of the steady-state conditions preferred by the patients. These were an air temperature of between 21P5' and 220 C and a relative humidity of between 30 % and 70 %, where the air velocity was less than 0.1Im/s and the mean radiant temperature was close to air temperature. INlRODUCTION

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Section: Humidity Considerationssupporting

confidence: 63%

Thermal comfort of patients in hospital ward areas

Smith

Rae

1977

J. Hyg.

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“…Studies on eye irritation by Abusharha and Pearce (2013) and Laviana et al (1988) noted time as an important variable; studies were 1 hour and 10 hours long, respectively. Work by de Dear et al (1989) Andersen et al (1974) studied male university students (N=8) in an environmental chamber for a total of 125 hours; this was, by far, the longest controlled, environmental chamber study located in this literature review.…”

Section: Exposure Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two review papers examined the effects of dehumidification on asthma patients (Singh et al, 2002;Singh and Jaiswal, 2013), yet only located one or two papers, and the effects of dehumidification were inconclusive. A laboratory study examined eight male university students in an environmental chamber (Andersen et al, 1974) iary flow using detection of small particles (technetium Tc 99m-tagged resin particles), and did not find a statistically significant difference in nasal mucus flow rates between the humidity levels with this method. Laboratory research (Bundgaard et al, 1982;Kaminsky et al, 1995) focused on determining the mechanism of exercise-induced asthma.…”

Section: Asthma and Respiratory Infectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Update of the scientific evidence for specifying lower limit relative humidity levels for comfort, health, and indoor environmental quality in occupied spaces (RP-1630)

Derby

Hamehkasi

Eckels

et al. 2016

Science and Technology for the Built Environment

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Nearly 600 papers were located in citation and keyword searches regarding the effects of humidity on comfort, health, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Of these, around 70 papers reported the effects of low humidity (RH≤40%) and were analyzed in detail. Information in some categories was well chronicled, while other categories had significant knowledge gaps.Low humidity decreased house dust mite allergens. Due to different envelopes, generalizations could not be made for all bacteria and viruses. However, lower humidity increased virus survival for influenza. For comfort, low humidity had little effect on thermal comfort, but skin dryness, eye irritation, and static electricity increased as humidity decreased. For IEQ, low humidity had non-uniform effects on volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and perceived indoor air quality. Across many low humidity studies, ventilation rates and exposure times were noted as confounding variables. A majority of studies that used human subjects utilized exposure times of three hours or less with adult subjects; few studies used children, adolescents, or elderly subjects.

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“…The only experimental investigation of this problem failed to find a relationship between low humidity and dehydration of the mucous membranes. Andersen et al (12) examined the posterior nasal mucociliary flow of eight healthy male subjects between 21 and 26 years of age exposed to 9% relative humidity in a climate chamber for 3 days. The mucosal flow actually increased after 3 days of exposure at 23°C compared to the control period of exposure to 50% relative humidity at the same temperature.…”

Section: Direct Health Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect health effects of relative humidity in indoor environments.

Arundel¹,

Sterling²,

Biggin³

et al. 1986

Environ Health Perspect

239

172

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A review of the health effects of relative humidity in indoor environments suggests that relative humidity can affect the incidence of respiratory infections and allergies. Experimental studies on airborne-transmitted infectious bacteria and viruses have shown that the survival or infectivity of these organisms is minimized by exposure to relative humidities between 40 and 70%. Nine epidemiological studies examined the relationship between the number of respiratory infections or absenteeism and the relative humidity of the office, residence, or school. The incidence of absenteeism or respiratory infections was found to be lower among people working or living in environments with mid-range versus low or high relative humidities. The indoor size of allergenic mite and fungal populations is directly dependent upon the relative humidity. Mite populations are minimized when the relative humidity is below 50% and reach a maximum size at 80% relative humidity. Most species of fungi cannot grow unless the relative humidity exceeds 60%. Relative humidity also affects the rate of offgassing of formaldehyde from indoor building materials, the rate of formation of acids and salts from sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, and the rate of formation of ozone. The influence of relative humidity on the abundance of allergens, pathogens, and noxious chemicals suggests that indoor relative humidity levels should be considered as a factor of indoor air quality. The majority of adverse health effects caused bLy relative humidity would be minimized by maintaining indoor levels between 40 and 60%. This would require humidification during winter in areas with cold winter climates. Humidification should preferably use evaporative or steam humidifiers, as cool mist humidifiers can disseminate aerosols contaminated with allergens.

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Human Response to 78-Hour Exposure to Dry Air

Cited by 95 publications

References 6 publications

Thermal comfort of patients in hospital ward areas

Thermal comfort of patients in hospital ward areas

Update of the scientific evidence for specifying lower limit relative humidity levels for comfort, health, and indoor environmental quality in occupied spaces (RP-1630)

Indirect health effects of relative humidity in indoor environments.

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