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- Quantificação de mercúrio em amostras de pó doméstico recolhidas na cidade da Covilhã (Portugal) - Resultados preliminares do projeto 6x60x6Publication . Neves, Sara M.; Pastorinho, Manuel Ramiro Dias; Barata, Luis Taborda; Patto, Maria Da Assunção Vaz; Monteiro, Marisa Rodrigues; Nepomuceno, Miguel; Lanzinha, João; Sousa, Ana Catarina AlmeidaA avaliação da qualidade do ambiente interior, particularmente do ambiente doméstico, por ser aquele em que o ser humano passa a maior parte do seu tempo, reveste-se de particular importância. Esta qualidade é modulada por um conjunto de fatores entre os quais se encontram os contaminantes ambientais com potencial tóxico, que têm vindo a ser quantificados de forma consistente no pó doméstico, uma matriz com grande capacidade integradora. Este trabalho, que utiliza o mercúrio como caso de estudo, integra-se no âmbito de um projeto pioneiro e multidisciplinar, em que se pretende estudar por um período de sessenta dias, seis habitações particulares localizadas na cidade da Covilhã, para compreender de que forma as características do imóvel e os hábitos dos habitantes podem influenciar a qualidade do ambiente interior e consequentemente a saúde dos residentes. Os níveis de mercúrio total nas amostras de pó doméstico variaram entre 138,7 ppb e 1075,5 ppb, com um só dos imóveis a transcender o valor máximo permissível estabelecido pela Portaria Nº1450/2007. Estabelece-se uma comparação com os valores registados para outros estudos similares e traça-se um plano de ação para o pleno desenvolvimento do estudo.
- Toxic metals in indoor dust collected from houses included in the “6x60x6” Project (Covilhã, Portugal) during the cooling seasonPublication . Pastorinho, Ramiro; Lanzinha, João; Barata, Luis Taborda; Patto, Maria Da Assunção Vaz; Monteiro, Marisa Rodrigues; Nepomuceno, Miguel; Sousa, Ana Catarina AlmeidaWe spend more than 90 per cent of our daily lives indoors. Managing the indoor environment so that we feel comfortable and healthy is therefore very important. However, this management is only possible if rigorous data on both construction parameters and indoor environment exists. Moreover, the evolution of construction techniques and materials used modulates both aspects. As a consequence, it is necessary that the information obtained reflects a long period of time. That is the main driver for the project “Six by Sixty by Six” undertaken by the Civil Engineering and Architecture Department and the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Beira Interior. Six houses constructed in six different decades (1960’s-2010’s) were surveyed for sixty days regarding a set of parameters (e.g., temperature, humidity, CO2, CO, VOCs). Additionally, dust was collected by the vacuum cleaner bag and was analyzed for specific contaminants. This work presents the results obtained for the toxics metals mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead in dust samples. There is no legislation regulating maximum permissible levels for any of the studied metals in dust. A comparison with ”Portaria Nº 1450/2007” which regulates the maximum metal contents in dredged sediment that can be safely deposited in soils (here used as an action threshold) reveals that the values for As in all houses were transcended. For Cd and Hg they were only transcended in one house, whereas for lead all the values were below this threshold. Linear regression with age of construction used as independent variable revealed no relationship between this variable and metal concentrations with the exception of As (R2 adjusted= 0.41). Findings are discussed under the light of potential health outcomes upon the residents.
- House dust fungal communities’ characterization: a double take on the six by sixty by six project (6x60x6)Publication . Amaro, Raquel do Nascimento; Coelho, Sónia Dias; Pastorinho, Ramiro; Barata, Luis Taborda; Patto, Maria Da Assunção Vaz; Monteiro, Marisa Rodrigues; Nepomuceno, Miguel; Lanzinha, João; Teixeira, João Paulo; Pereira, Cristiana Costa; Sousa, Ana Catarina AlmeidaFungi are a group microbes, that are found with particular incidence in the indoor environment. Their direct toxicity or capability of generating toxic compounds has been associated with a large number of adverse health effects, such as infectious diseases, allergies and other toxic effects. Given that in modern society people spend a large part of their time indoors; fungal communities’ characterization of this environmental compartment assumes paramount importance in the comprehension of health effects. House dust is an easy to obtain, time-integrative matrix, being its use in epidemiological studies on human exposure to environmental contaminants highly recommended. Furthermore, dust can carry a great variety of fungal content that undergoes a large number of processes that modulate and further complexify human exposure. Our study aims to quantify and identify the fungal community on house dust samples collected using two different methodologies (an approach not often seen in the literature): active (vacuum cleaner bags) and passive sampling (dust settled in petri dishes). Sampling was performed as part of the ongoing 6x60x6 Project in which six houses from Covilhã (Portugal), with building dates representative of six decades, were studied for a period of sixty days.