Screening Strategies of an Indoor Air Quality Express Assessment Protocol (EAP) for Air-conditioned Offices

Abstract

Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in air-conditioned offices can have adverse effects on occupants like discomfort and productivity loss. Strategic IAQ monitoring and assessment conducted with optimized resources for representative pollutants and air sampling have therefore been developed. This study evaluates the performance of a proposed simple screen process on an IAQ express assessment protocol (EAP) to identify in the office environment asymptomatic unsatisfactory IAQ. This screening process was conducted with an `IAQ index', correlated with an event of unsatisfactory IAQ through the `failure' due to other unmeasured air pollutant levels in the EAP. In this case the IAQ index is defined as the average fractional dose within certain exposure limits from the assessed top dominant contributors identified from a regional database of IAQ assessment results for workplaces. The accuracy of the proposed assessment protocol was tested with a regional IAQ database developed from IAQ measurements of common air pollutants in 422 air-conditioned offices of Hong Kong and compared with the EAP. It is reported that the application of the screening process in the EAP would improve the overall performance of the IAQ assessment without additional measurement parameters. The proposed screening protocol of the EAP would be a useful source of reference in setting up any IAQ assessment policies.