Secretary - Anne Hyvärinen
Dr. Hyvärinen is a Senior Researcher at the Department of Environmental Health of the National Institute of Health and Welfare in Kuopio, Finland and an Adjunct Professor for Natural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Kuopio, Finland. She received her PhD from the University of Kuopio. She has conducted research also in the Respiratory Sciences Center at the University of Arizona, USA and at the Institution of Medical Microbiology, Dermatology and Infection at the University of Lund, Sweden.
Dr. Hyvärinen has engaged her research work on indoor air quality and in particular, on microbial exposure assessments and health. She is carrying out studies on moisture and mold damaged buildings and farming homes, on associations between microbial exposure and childhood asthma and allergies and on environmental factors affecting on microbial levels. She is strongly involved with large EU projects (PASTURE/EFRAIM, GABRIEL, HITEA) aiming at understanding the role of microbial exposure in atopy, asthma and respiratory symptoms and mechanisms causing these outcomes. She is a supervisor of several PhD students.
Dr. Hyvärinen has been active in preparation of Guideline for Healthy housing, Handbook for Healthy housing (Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Finland, 2003 and 2009) and Handbook for resolving moisture and mold damage in schools (KTL publications C C2/2008). She has also been involved in preparation of Recommendations for clinicians for investigation of health problems caused by moisture damage. Dr Hyvärinen is also continuously participating to public health work by teaching, lecturing and consulting. She has been responsible for building up an accredited laboratory QA system.
