Screening for Indoor Air Quality Express Assessment Protocol of Air-conditioned Offices

نویسندگان

  • P. S. Hui
  • L. T. Wong
  • K. W. Mui
چکیده

A successful Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) surveillance plan is essential for healthy and safe workplaces; yet it is costly to sample all air pollutants of the entire community. In Hong Kong, a voluntary IAQ certification scheme for workplaces proposes the acceptable concentration levels of nine common indoor air pollutants, namely carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), respirable suspended particulates (RSP), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), formaldehyde (HCHO), total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), radon (Rn) and airborne bacteria count (ABC). However, technical difficulties have been reported during the full assessment of these pollutants. This study hence investigates the feasibility of a preliminary screening process for presumptive detection of IAQ problems in an airconditioned environment. Specifically, a simple screening test at certain probability of unsatisfactory IAQ for air-conditioned offices, together with an ‘IAQ index’ which employs the average fractional dose to certain exposure limits of a few ‘most representative’ air pollutants (rather than all of the listed nine) was proposed. This is an alternative for routine inspection in determining the asymptomatic IAQ unsatisfactory for some air-conditioned offices of Hong Kong. And it was evaluated in terms of the test sensitivity, specificity and predictive values. The screening test would be a useful tool for policymakers, building owners and professionals to identify offices with probable IAQ problems and to make decisions on resources for efficient mitigation actions.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Evaluation of Indoor Air Quality Screening Strategies: A Step-Wise Approach for IAQ Screening

Conducting a full indoor air quality (IAQ) assessment in air-conditioned offices requires large-scale material and manpower resources. However, an IAQ index can be adopted as a handy screening tool to identify any premises (with poor IAQ) that need more comprehensive IAQ assessments to prioritize IAQ improvements. This study proposes a step-wise IAQ screening protocol to facilitate its cost-eff...

متن کامل

An Assessment of Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Comfort in Educational Spaces (Case Study: Girls' High Schools in Arak, Iran)

As s‌tudents spend one-third of their time at school, their health, comfort, and productivity are mos‌tly influenced by thermal condition and indoor air quality of classrooms. Regarding that manual window-opening is a common way for providing fresh air in classes and s‌tudents aren't allowed to change their uniform, position or control the windows during the lesson hours, providing thermal comf...

متن کامل

Thermal Comfort in Offices – Natural Ventilation vs. Air Conditioning

Based on both subjective and objective data, a study was carried out in order to identify differences in the perception of thermal comfort of office workers in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings. The analysis of the interviews shows that occupants of naturally ventilated office buildings are significantly more satisfied with their thermal environment than occupants in air-condit...

متن کامل

Indoor Air Quality of Office Buildings in the Helsinki Area

Indoor air quality (IAQ) was investigated in 19 open-plan offices and 30 office rooms in order to compare the differences in these two different types of office environments. No moisture or mold problems had been reported from the present buildings, but the employees had complained about the IAQ. The results revealed only slight differences in the IAQ of the two different types of office enviro...

متن کامل

Future directions and research needs.

In this paper, three perspectives for indoor air issues are considered: a) air inside of our homes and offices is a major component of our overall living environment and has potentially great impact on public health; b) there are important scientific questions raised specifically to indoor air that will require skills and expertise to develop and interpret research and data collection efforts; ...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2008