Uncovering eco-friendly design in the ancient bronze goose-and-fish lamp: an unnoticeable gap boosts ventilation.

The bronze goose-and-fish lamp exhibited in the national museum of China is a 2,000-y-old artifact once used for indoor lighting by nobility in the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE TO 25 CE). The beauty of this national treasure arises from its elegant shape vividly showing a goose catching fish with beautiful colors painted over the whole body. Beyond the artistic and historical value, what enchants people most is the eco-design concept of this oil-burning lamp. It is widely believed that the smoke generated by burning animal oil can flow into the goose belly through its long neck, then be absorbed by prefilled water in the belly, hence mitigating indoor air pollution. Although different mechanistic hypotheses such as natural convection and even the siphon effect have been proposed to qualitatively rationalize the above-claimed pollution mitigation function, due to the absence of a true scientific analysis, the definitive mechanism remains a mystery. By rigorous modeling of the nonisothermal fluid flow coupled with convection-diffusion of pollutant within and out of the lamp, we discover that it is the unnoticeable gap between goose body and lamp tray (i.e., an intrinsic feature of the multicompartmental design) that can offer definitive ventilation in the lamp. The ventilation is facilitated by natural convection due to oil burning. Adequate ventilation plays a key role in enabling pollution mitigation, as it allows pollutant to reach the goose belly, travel over and be absorbed by the water.

Modern indoor climate research in Denmark from 1962 to the early 1990s: an eyewitness report.

UNLABELLED: Modern, holistic indoor climate research started with the formation of an interdisciplinary 'Indoor Climate Research Group' in 1962 at the Institute of Hygiene, University of Aarhus, Denmark. After some years, other groups started similar research in Denmark and Sweden, and later - after the First International Indoor Air Symposium in Copenhagen 1978--this research spread to many countries and today it is carried out globally by probably 2000 scientists. This paper recounts the history of Danish indoor climate research, focusing on the three decades from the early 1960s to the founding of the Indoor Air journal in 1991. The aim of this paper is to summarize what was learned in those earlier years and to call to the attention of researchers in this area the need of multidisciplinary research, mingling epidemiological fact-finding field studies with climate chamber studies and laboratory investigations. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The review may be of interest to indoor climate researchers who want to know more about the early development of research on this multidisciplinary subject, as it emerged in a small country that undertook pioneering studies.

[The healthiness of the air: historical analysis of the studies on the relationship between health and air pollution in living and working places]. / La "salubrità" dell'aria: analisi storica degli studi della correlazione tra salute ed inquinamento dell'aria negli ambienti di vita e di lavoro.

The relationship between air pollution and health had already been postulated by ancient authors. In the Eighteenth century, Bernardino Ramazzini, the founder of the Occupational Medicine, reported in its works relevant considerations against air pollution and its damages. During the Enlightenment, the studies on the eudiometry conducted by the physic Marsilio Landriani can be considered a first attempt to connect the measurement of air quality to medical issues. In the following centuries, Industrial Revolution and the diffusion of domestic heating were a determining factor in worsening the air quality. Despite specific legislations on smoke abatement, some air pollution "disasters" occurred during the last century. In conclusion, this historical analysis showed the complex evolution of the knowledge on the relationship between health and air pollution. Nowadays, an important contribution to the current scientific and political debate on this issue has been provided also by the Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

[Indoor pollution]. / Inquinamento indoor.

The Author reports more important phases from the beginning of housing to now: the indoor pollution time. Shelter is a basic need; humans require protection against the elements, somewhere to store and prepare the food, and a secure place to raise offspring; but indoor environment is not always safe. It has been known since Hippocrates' time that housing conditions affect health. Today situation starts from the enormous growth of urbanization. At 1888 in Italy first legislation on health, including healthy building, has been issued. The prevention policies were based on local hygiene regulations. At present housing programmes of who stress the problem in consideration too of the great part of time that, in industrialized Countries, we all pass at home, in the indoor environment. Following the general introduction the Author relates on the features of indoor climate, that may be identical that out of doors, or may be modified by heating, cooling, humidification and ventilation. Larger commentaries are reported on indoor pollution and its increasing by modern technology producing several new hazards. Physical, chemical and biological indoor air pollutants, with their principal sources and health damages associated, are analyzed. In conclusion the author shows some data from a research on indoor pollution in the houses of Rome.