Humidity: A review and primer on atmospheric moisture and human health

Abstract

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. cases when the proximity to saturation is not medically relevant. Care must be taken in averaging certain humidity variables daily or seasonally to avoid statistical biasing associated with variables that are inherently diurnal through their relationship to temperature.

Sick building syndrome: are we doing enough?

“…The mechanism by which heat affects human performance is basically dependent upon interactions of a wide array of variables such as temperature, radiation, wind, and humidity, though it is often treated as a sole product of temperature (Davis, McGregor, and Enfield 2016). Among these factors, the importance of humidity received a significant attention due to its direct link to human health.…”

“…Although there is no agreement on what constitutes the ideal range of RH, environments with temperature above 32°C and RH above 60% are considered as hot and humid environment (Shi, Zhu, and Zheng 2013). The existence of humidity can potentially provide a hospitable environment for microscopic organisms such as mildews and moulds to be grown up indoor and pose a serious danger upon the health status of residents (Davis, McGregor, and Enfield 2016). Additionally, humidity exposure can cause muscle cramps, fainting, heat stroke, and even exacerbate the underlying medical conditions, such as lung or heart disease (Zheng et al 2012).…”

Contributions of different bias‐correction methods and reference meteorological forcing data sets to uncertainty in projected temperature and precipitation extremes

“…However, our method could offer humidity variables that are closer to the reference and would benefit impact communities conducting bias correction of GCM daily humidity data [Masaki et al, 2015]. In addition, S14FD includes absolute humidity, a humidity variable used in climate-health analysis [Davis et al, 2016] (though postprocessing allows for derivation of this variable from other forcing data sets).…”

The association between local meteorological changes and exacerbation of acute wheezing in Kandy, Sri Lanka

“…action of cilia) or indirectly by creating favorable conditions for the transmission of viral and bacterial infections of the respiratory system, effects on outdoor and indoor fungal growth and indoor dust mite growth, off-gassing of formaldehyde from indoor building materials, the rate of removal of sulfur and nitrogen dioxides from air by formation of acids and salts, the rate of formation of ground level ozone, swelling and rupture of pollen grains in the air and the formation of organic aerosol particles [1,19,42]. Inhalation of those pathogens, chemicals, body parts and excreta of dust mites and fungal spores can precipitate wheezing [1,19,42].To minimize those adverse health effects caused by humidity, maintaining indoor relative humidity levels in between 40% and 60% is recommended [42]. Most buildings of the Kandy area have no climate control and during the day time most people keep windows open hence the outdoor humidity has a greater influence on indoor humidity.…”

“…Accordingly a peak of the number of patients nebulized was expected following a trough of visibility (a negative correlation with the visibility level). Both extremes of humidity were shown to exacerbate wheezing [1,19]. Hence a peak of the count of patients nebulized was expected to be plausible after a trough or a peak of relative humidity (either a positive or negative correlation with relative humidity).…”