Asthma, rhinitis, and eczema are becoming increasingly prevalent among children in China. Studies have shown that the perinatal period is critical and impacts children’s health. However, research on the associations between perinatal factors and childhood allergic diseases in China are few. We investigated 7366 children of ages 0–8 years old. The childhood asthma and allergies were surveyed by distributing questionnaires, modelled after Dampness in Buildings and Health (DBH) study in Sweden and had been validated. To determine the prevalence of the allergic conditions, explore for potential confounders, and analyze the associations between the allergies and the home environmental factors, chi-square test and binary logistic regression models (enter method) were employed. The prevalence of children’s doctor-diagnosed asthma, rhinitis, and eczema were 4.4%, 9.5%, and 39.1%, respectively. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, the negative effect of dampness/humidity on children’s health became more obvious, with odd ratios (aORs) of up to 1.70 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12–2.57) for doctor-diagnosed asthma (DDA), 2.12 (95% CI: 1.38–3.25) for doctor-diagnosed rhinitis (DDR) and 1.79 (95% CI: 1.46–2.21) for doctor-diagnosed eczema (DDE). With parental smoking, aORs of up to 4.66 (95% CI: 1.99–10.92) for DDA and 1.74 (95%: 1.00–3.02) for DDE. Renovation exhibited aORs of up to 1.67 (95% CI: 1.13–2.47) for DDR. Although they showed no significant associations with some of the health outcomes, contact with animals, in general, were risk factors for the allergic conditions. Generally, the indoor environmental factors around the perinatal period were significant risk factors for the doctor-diagnosed allergic conditions discussed in this study.

Children spend most of their indoors time at home, which may have substantial influence on their health. We conducted a cross-sectional study in the Tianjin area, China to quantify the incidence of respiratory infections among children, and its association with home environments and lifestyles. The lifetime-ever incidences of croup, pneumonia and ear infection among children aged 0–8 in Tianjin area was 9.2%, 28.7% and 11.6%, respectively. The incidence of common cold infections more than twice per year was 31.3%. Home environments and lifestyles included strong risk factors for childhood respiratory infections. Perceived dry air had the greatest association with childhood common colds (population attributable fraction (PAF = 15.0%). Modern floor covering had the greatest association with croup (PAF = 14.7%) and ear infection (PAF = 34.5%), while infrequent bedding sun-curing had the greatest association with pneumonia (PAF = 18.7%). Condensation (a proxy of poor ventilation) accounted for 12.2% of the incidence of croup (PAF = 12.2%) and frequent common colds (PAF = 8.4%). Our findings indicate that factors related to “modern” home environments and lifestyles are risks for childhood respiratory infections. Modifying such factors might reduce the incidence of respiratory infections among children.

The purification of indoor pathogenic microorganisms has become a topic of concern. The use of nonwoven media air filters causes high resistance, and the problem of noise limited their application under high air volume. Thus, we propose a micro-electrostatic filter, which has improved performance compared to an electrostatic filter, with a new type of cylindrical structure to tackle indoor pathogenic microbial aerosol pollution. Through simulation, it is found that the filtration performance of a cylindrical structure is better than that of a plate structure under all simulation conditions. For particles larger than 1 μm, the shortest theoretical length of the dust collecting plate required for the cylindrical structure is 34% shorter than that for the plate structure. For 0.1 μm particles, the filtration efficiency of the cylindrical structure is nearly 20~30% (the maximum value is 29.76%) higher than that of the plate structure, while the air velocity is 1.5 m/s~2.5 m/s. The resistance of the cylindrical micro-electrostatic filter is only half of that of the combined plate type micro-electrostatic filter, indicating that the cartridge structure has enormous energy-saving potential. The introduction of the quality factor further proves that the integrated filtration performance of the cartridge micro-electrostatic filter is better. The application of cylindrical micro-electrostatic filters in HVAC systems can help improve indoor air quality and reduce health risks.

Cooking fumes are an important source of indoor and outdoor air pollution. Containing potentially carcinogenic particles and toxic chemical components, they pose significant health threats, making precise detection essential for risk prevention and the formulation of emission standards. This study used the manual gravimetric analysis as the benchmark reference method to systematically evaluate the performance of three alternative measurement techniques: (1) an optical particle counter (Promo 3000, Palas GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany), (2) a photometer (DustTrak 8533, TSI, Shoreview, MN, USA), and (3) infrared spectrophotometry. A data correction model was constructed by simulating typical cooking conditions. Results indicate that the manual gravimetric analysis yielded the highest particulate concentrations. Infrared spectrophotometry measured only 75.6% of the benchmark value, mainly because of its selectivity toward oil-derived organic components and possible sampling losses. The optical particle counter, influenced by particle light-scattering properties and density differences, underestimated the mass concentration of particles larger than 0.3 μm, capturing only 46.9% of the benchmark value. Conversely, the photometer exhibited the smallest deviation, with readings closest to the gravimetric reference under the tested cooking fumes conditions. Theoretical derivation and data fitting determined correction factors of 1.32 for infrared spectrophotometry, 2.13 for the optical particle counter for particles larger than 0.3 μm, and 0.97 for the photometer. This correction system enables the standardization of data across different detection methods, allowing on-site monitoring data to be calibrated against the gravimetric reference method.