Air pollution/working activity correlation: a case study in a dental hospital
The paper deals with a multidimensional approach demonstrating a direct link between the entity of ongoing dentistry activity (number and kind of interventions) and specific pollution components. Simultaneously indoor/outdoor air concentrations of a set of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and activity variables, describing the amount and nature of ongoing dentistry activities, were monitored over a year at a dental hospital located in an urban area. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to single out mutually orthogonal pollution components which were then correlated to “pathology” factors arising from the analysis of dentistry activity indexes. The use of a multidimensional perspective allowed us to obtain a statistically significant model of the link between level of pollution and dentistry activity. In particular, the correlation approach linking pollution results to pathological variables allows us to establish a causative link even in the presence of sub-threshold concentrations of pollutants.
Keywords: air pollution; dental setting; dentistry activity; pathology; volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome, Italy 2: Ospedale Odontoiatrico George Eastman, Rome, Italy
Publication date: 01 February 2011
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