TS 6. Designing And Conducting Field Campaigns That Include Indoor Environments

Presented by: Shelly Miller and Marina Vance

Location: Mesilla

Abstract: Health effects from exposure to particulate matter are well understood from the context of outdoor air. People, however, spend more than 80% of their time indoors and sources and levels of exposures can vary widely compared to outdoor air. Indoor particle concentrations are driven by the outdoor environment, the building itself (e.g., the leakiness of the enclosure, building materials), the building’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, occupant activities, and other indoor sources. All of these factors can be very different, even in seemingly similar buildings, and highly temporally variable in the same building. In this tutorial we will review the key ingredients needed to include indoor environments in any field study. We will outline processes for first selecting the building parameters that are important to measure depending on the goals of a field study and to efficiently make measurements of these variables depending on the needed resolution and resources available. We will also provide suggestions for analysis and interpretation of data collected to better inform our understanding of exposures in indoor environments.

Presenter Bio: Shelly L. Miller is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and faculty in the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Miller studies urban air quality and works diligently to understand the impact of air pollution on public health and the environment. Miller is an expert on indoor air quality, airborne infectious disease transmission, air pollution and air cleaning technologies, and assessing and mitigating urban air pollution exposures in underserved communities. Miller is a member of the Academy of Fellows of the International Society for Indoor Air and Climate (ISIAQ) and is also an Associate Editor for Environmental Science and Technology. Dr. Miller has published over 100 peer reviewed articles on air quality including timely papers on COVID-19 transmission and control and is the principal investigator on the National Science Foundation’s Social Justice and Environmental Equity Project in Denver (SJEQDenver.com). Miller holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College. 

Presenter Bio: Marina Vance is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and faculty in the Environmental Engineering Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Vance’s research is focused on applying engineering tools to understand airborne particulate matter emitted from everyday activities and to reduce human exposure. Vance and her research group work in the laboratory and in the field to quantify aerosol sources, describe their transport and fate, and to design and evaluate mitigation strategies. Dr. Vance’s experience includes co-leading the HOMEChem and CASA indoor chemistry field campaigns. Vance received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2012. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental engineering from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil).