Let’s celebrate our accomplishments and harness the power of our diversity
2011; Wiley; Volume: 21; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1600-0668.2011.00744.x
ISSN1600-0668
Autores Tópico(s)Indoor Air Quality and Microbial Exposure
Resumo‘It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences’. Audre Lorde (1934–1992). Although Lorde did not have indoor air quality (or environmental) scientists in mind when she penned those words, it behooves us to recognize, accept, and celebrate our differences. What fuels our community is that we are not a monolith. We are engineers, epidemiologists, biologists, chemists, medical doctors, sociologists, toxicologists, physicists, policy makers, industrial hygienists, and more. We gain from multidisciplinary collaboration such that our whole is greater than the sum of our parts. We do research grounded in fundamental scientific principles. But we also mine past data to empirically determine trends and associations, e.g., between environmental stressors and health effects. We identify health and comfort problems caused by inadequate indoor environments, assess the physical, chemical, and biological root causes of those problems, engineer solutions, and help to derive policies that positively affect lives. The scientific diversity of our community is reflected in the wealth of topics associated with the 800 papers that were presented at Indoor Air 2011. Figure 1 shows those topics for which at least 20 papers were presented at the conference. These topics were the focus of over 80% of the presentations made at Indoor Air 2011. And there was even a high degree of diversity within each topic. For example, presentations focused on health ranged from allergy and asthma to infectious disease transmission, reproductive toxicity, and eye symptomatology. Presentations focused on schools dealt with topics ranging from indoor environmental quality and student performance to mercury emissions from flooring. The remaining 20% (150+) of presentations not included in Figure 1 also focused on important topics that require a breadth of disciplinary expertise, from radon to climate change effects on indoor environments, and from field assessment tools to standards and guidelines. We should recognize, accept, and celebrate the multidisciplinary nature of our community, the wealth of tools in our collective tool box, and our ability to use those tools to make connections between seemingly disparate issues. In the absence of funds typical of regulatory-rich fields, our scientific diversity and the many tools that we use have served our community well. Most frequently presented topics at Indoor Air 2011 Our community is rapidly growing in its stature and productivity. Consider that Web of Science includes 626 papers related to ‘air quality’ or ‘air pollution’ that were published from 1965 through 1969 (the earliest period with abstracts listed in Web of Science). Only two of those papers (0.3%) involved any discussion of ‘indoor air’. That is worth repeating. Only two! For the decade of the 1970s, that percentage increased to 1.3% (27 of 2097 papers) and has continued to increase every decade since, reaching 14.9% (4,435 of 29,766) in the first decade of the twenty-first century. We should acknowledge and appreciate this very positive trajectory. There should be no doubt that members of our field and our Society are making differences that affect humans in positive ways. These efforts have been led in part by members of the prestigious ISIAQ Academy of Fellows. A search of Web of Science from 1965 to present for the topic ‘indoor’ indicates that the top six authors are all members of the ISIAQ Academy of Fellows (J. Spengler, W. Nazaroff, D. Norback, C. Weschler, B. Brunekreef, and A. Nevalainen) and eight of the top ten authors are also members of the ISIAQ Academy of Fellows (add K. Smith and P. Wolkoff). Few, if any, actions related to air pollution, whether indoor or outdoor, have benefitted public health as much as the policies and laws that prohibit smoking in public buildings, commercial aircraft, school grounds, health facilities, and many other building environments. The background information that fed and continues to feed related policy decisions is based on research efforts by health and physical scientists and engineers. Since 1980, this research has led to 810 papers listed in Web of Science [search terms: (‘environmental tobacco smoke’ OR ETS) AND indoor*]. Of the top 14 most prolific authors on the subject, five are members of the ISIAQ Academy of Fellows and at least 50% are members of ISIAQ. The levels of formaldehyde emitted from engineered wood products have been reduced because of pressures on industry by the public and, in some cases, by government policies. Of the more than 1000 papers on formaldehyde and indoor air listed in Web of Science since 1980, six of the 10 most cited papers are coauthored by members of the ISIAQ Academy of Fellows. Importantly, these papers span research related to source emissions, chemistry, health, and engineered controls. Research published largely during the past 25 years has shed light on sick building syndrome (SBS), revealing that it is more than a group psychological response, and advancing our insight into associated and potentially causal factors. During that period, seven of the 10 most cited papers of 610 on SBS listed in Web of Science were coauthored by members of the ISIAQ Academy of Fellows. Academy Fellows also contributed much to knowledge of associations between building ventilation and health, including four of the 10 most cited papers listed in Web of Science since 1995 and four of the five most cited papers on HVAC systems and health during the same period. And from 1995 to present, our Society members and Academy Fellows have led efforts to quantify the effects of indoor environmental quality on worker productivity, with eight of the 10 most cited papers in Web of Science. The list of our Society and Academy member contributions goes on and on: since 1995, eight of the 10 most cited papers on ozone and indoor air, seven of the 10 most cited papers on commercial airliners and indoor air, six of the 10 most cited papers on damp buildings and health, and five of the six most cited papers on indoor SVOCs (and the 6th paper was authored by a past Ph.D. student of an ISIAQ Academy member!). Much of our work in these areas and others has led to improvements in the quality of indoor environments, whether by public education, motivation for industry to reduce emissions from its products, or government policies. And that which has not yet had a tangible impact may well serve as a foundation that ultimately leads to changes that benefit human comfort, productivity, and health. An important engine that drives our Society is its international membership. Authors from 51 countries were represented on papers submitted for Indoor Air 2011, and attendees hailed from 47 countries. Being such an international community provides many benefits. It allows for differences in perspectives on how to address indoor environmental issues. Listening to and working with colleagues from other countries can broaden horizons and allow for consideration of greater options in our own research or practice. Furthermore, as a highly international Society, we are faced with a broader range of issues and regional priorities. Many of us have worked across continents and taken advantage of the opportunities afforded by this important characteristic of our community. And there is energy to be had in working with such wonderful colleagues from so many rich cultures around the world. While many of the ‘elders’ of our community have helped to define modern indoor environmental science and to grow its stature, our community is not ‘top heavy’ in age. We have a large and growing base of aspiring young researchers who will draw on past efforts, forge important new research advances, and shape our field for decades to come. One of the most exciting outcomes of Indoor Air 2011 was its youthfulness, with 270 student attendees from around the world presenting papers and developing leadership skills by serving as co-chairs of 80 different technical sessions. Importantly, the Board of Directors of ISIAQ has adopted a new policy to include a student member on the Board. These developments bode well for the future of the greater indoor environmental science community and for our Society. Our future is in good hands and minds. Finally, to quote a famous baseball ‘philosopher’, Yogi Berra, ‘The future ain’t what it used to be’. Perhaps, Yogi was ahead of his timeliness. Our community is now faced with grand challenges of a scope and even of a nature that few predicted three or four decades ago. Thousands of new chemicals are manufactured every year, and many of these have ultimate destinations inside buildings. What are their impacts and how should we prioritize our studies of them? New green and sustainable materials, from flooring to coatings and insulation, are being introduced at a rate that exceeds our current ability to properly evaluate them, their long-term performance in buildings, and their effects on building occupants. How can we begin to rapidly but effectively assess the impacts of these new materials on indoor environmental quality? Globalization has connected the world in such a way that airborne infectious agents have potential for more rapid spread. How do we most effectively predict and control the transmission of these agents? Direct effects of climate change plus how buildings are designed, constructed, retrofitted, maintained, and operated so as to mitigate and adapt to these changes are likely to dramatically alter indoor environments for decades to come. How should we prioritize and investigate the many issues surrounding this grand challenge? Our ability to address these and many other future challenges will benefit from continuing advances in analytical methods, computational toxicology, molecular biology, materials science, and more. But perhaps, our most valuable asset is the diversity, creativity, and youthfulness of our community. Let’s celebrate who we are and the great opportunities that our community and Society have to address grand challenges of the future, and to contribute to the health of peoples around the world. Salute!
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