First joint Smart Living Lab and IIC seminar : Exposing the Brain: The cognitive impacts of indoor air pollution
Event details
| Date | 19.05.2023 |
| Hour | 11:00 › 12:00 |
| Speaker | Prof. Jeffrey Siegel, University of Toronto Canada |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract
Poor indoor air is often our largest environmental health risk, yet known chronic health consequences accumulate over a lifetime of exposure in different buildings, limiting public interest, investment, and regulatory action. Even with current increased focus on indoor air quality because of the pandemic, it is likely that the attention will diminish over time, as it has with other indoor hazards. However, exposures to indoor contaminants also negatively influence cognitive function and high-level decision making. These influences, although currently poorly understood, offer a sustained model for indoor air improvement with the costs for such improvements covered by the economic benefits from cognitive function improvements in environments such as schools and office buildings. This presentation discusses the current state of research on cognitive function impacts including research on carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and emissions from essential oil diffusers with a particular focus on understanding the fundamental connections between indoor exposures and neurocognitive processes
Short bio
Jeffrey Siegel, Ph.D., is Professor of Civil and Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto and is a Bahen/Tanenbaum Chair in Civil Engineering. He holds joint appointments at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a B.Sc. from Swarthmore College. He is internationally recognized for his work on indoor air quality generally and air cleaning specifically and is a fellow of ASHRAE and a member of the Academy of Fellows of the International Society for Indoor Air and Climate (ISIAQ). His research interests include healthy and sustainable buildings, filtration and air cleaning, ventilation and indoor air quality in residential and commercial buildings, control of indoor particulate matter, and the impact of building systems on indoor microbiology and chemistry. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles on indoor air quality and related subjects and has been active in disseminating information about filtration and ventilation solutions for COVID-19.
Sandwiches offered at the end of the seminar.
Zoom link provided on demand at [email protected]
Poor indoor air is often our largest environmental health risk, yet known chronic health consequences accumulate over a lifetime of exposure in different buildings, limiting public interest, investment, and regulatory action. Even with current increased focus on indoor air quality because of the pandemic, it is likely that the attention will diminish over time, as it has with other indoor hazards. However, exposures to indoor contaminants also negatively influence cognitive function and high-level decision making. These influences, although currently poorly understood, offer a sustained model for indoor air improvement with the costs for such improvements covered by the economic benefits from cognitive function improvements in environments such as schools and office buildings. This presentation discusses the current state of research on cognitive function impacts including research on carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and emissions from essential oil diffusers with a particular focus on understanding the fundamental connections between indoor exposures and neurocognitive processes
Short bio
Jeffrey Siegel, Ph.D., is Professor of Civil and Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto and is a Bahen/Tanenbaum Chair in Civil Engineering. He holds joint appointments at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences. He has an M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley as well as a B.Sc. from Swarthmore College. He is internationally recognized for his work on indoor air quality generally and air cleaning specifically and is a fellow of ASHRAE and a member of the Academy of Fellows of the International Society for Indoor Air and Climate (ISIAQ). His research interests include healthy and sustainable buildings, filtration and air cleaning, ventilation and indoor air quality in residential and commercial buildings, control of indoor particulate matter, and the impact of building systems on indoor microbiology and chemistry. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles on indoor air quality and related subjects and has been active in disseminating information about filtration and ventilation solutions for COVID-19.
Sandwiches offered at the end of the seminar.
Zoom link provided on demand at [email protected]
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Prof. Olga Fink (IMOS), Prof. Alexandre Alahi (VITA), Prof. Dusan Licina (HOBEL), Prof. Alain Nussbaumer (RESSLAB)
Contact
- Prof. Dusan Licina (HOBEL)