Aspects Of Indoor Air Quality Research Articles

A seasonal investigation of indoor air quality in relation to architectural features in government office buildings in Enugu, Nigeria

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is crucial to environmental health significantly impacting on the well-being and productivity of building occupants. Several studies have explored various aspects of IAQ in non-tropical regions but there is limited information on how seasonal variations affect IAQ in hot-humid climates like Enugu, Nigeria. This study investigated seasonal changes in key indoor air parameters including CO, CO2, HCHO, TVOC, temperature, RH, PM2.5, and AQI across rainy and dry seasons in 58 government offices in Enugu, and evaluated how these fluctuations relate to architectural features of the offices. Using a mixed-methods approach, data collection involved qualitative assessments of building design attributes alongside quantitative IAQ measurements taken with the BOSEAN T-Z01Pro detector. Seasonal variations were analyzed using paired T-tests, ANOVA, and regression models. The results revealed a marked increase in pollutant concentrations during the dry season (p < 0.001–0.005), resulting in a poorer air quality index compared to the rainy season. Architectural features accounted for 68.5% of the variability in AQI (R2 = 0.685, p = 0.000), with casement windows being significantly associated with better air quality (Exp B = -4.217, p = 0.013) These shows that the dry season poses a greater risk to IAQ which is worsened in offices where projecting windows were used, potentially impacting health and productivity. The study emphasizes the need to address seasonal IAQ differences when designing office buildings in tropical regions. Design architects can help reduce seasonal air quality challenges and support healthier, more productive indoor environments by incorporating ventilation strategies, such as the use of casement windows. Further research should include long-term monitoring across various settings and additional IAQ parameters for better understanding of IAQ dynamics.

Methodological assessment of screening methods and minimum panel member requirements for odor assessments

Assessment and control of odor are important aspects of indoor air quality and environmental levels for building materials. Currently, odor is primarily assessed through sensory odor panels. The screening method and number of panel members required for odor assessment influence the accuracy of results and human resource investment. Varied screening methods and number of panel members have been employed in different studies, the plausibility of which yet remains to be verified. In this study the distribution of the chemical sensitivity scale (CSS) score for 158 panel members and its relationship with their individual assessment results were explored based on 20 and 39 odor assessment results for indoor air and building materials, respectively. The minimum number of panel members required for sensory assessment was determined statistically. The results revealed that the higher the CSS scores of the panel members, the lower the odor acceptability (ACC) and higher the odor intensity (OI) of the individual assessment, and vice versa. Thus, this relationship could be combined with the screening method to control the CSS-score distribution of panel members. The minimum number of panel members required for OI and ACC assessments were determined as 6 and 17, respectively. Compared to ACC, the distribution of OI was more concentrated and less affected by individual sensitivity differences. The results of this study will be helpful in improving the efficiency and accuracy of odor assessments by reducing the human resource investment and effects of individual differences.

Microbiological, Health and Comfort Aspects of Indoor Air Quality in a Romanian Historical Wooden Church.

Monitoring the indoor microclimate in old buildings of cultural heritage and significance is a practice of great importance because of the importance of their identity for local communities and national consciousness. Most aged heritage buildings, especially those made of wood, develop an indoor microclimate conducive to the development of microorganisms. This study aims to analyze one wooden church dating back to the 1710s in Romania from the microclimatic perspective, i.e., temperature and relative humidity and the fungal load of the air and surfaces. One further aim was to determine if the internal microclimate of the monument is favorable for the health of parishioners and visitors, as well as for the integrity of the church itself. The research methodology involved monitoring of the microclimate for a period of nine weeks (November 2020–January 2021) and evaluating the fungal load in indoor air as well as on the surfaces. The results show a very high contamination of air and surfaces (>2000 CFU/m3). In terms of fungal contamination, Aspergillus spp. (two different species), Alternaria spp., Cladosporium spp., Mucor spp., Penicillium spp. (two different species) and Trichopyton spp. were the genera of fungi identified in the indoor wooden church air and Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp. (two different species) and Botrytis spp. on the surfaces (church walls and iconostasis). The results obtained reveal that the internal microclimate not only imposes a potential risk factor for the parishioners and visitors, but also for the preservation of the wooden church as a historical monument, which is facing a crisis of biodeterioration of its artwork.

Building Performance Evaluation of a New Hospital Building in the UK: Balancing Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Performance

Hospitals are controlled yet complex ecosystems which provide a therapeutic environment that promotes healing, wellbeing and work efficiency for patients and staff. As these buildings accommodate the sick and vulnerable, occupant wellbeing and good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) that deals with indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics are important objectives. As the specialist nature of hospital function demands highly controlled indoor environments, this makes them energy intensive buildings due to the complex and varying specifications for their functions and operations. This paper reports on a holistic building performance evaluation covering aspects of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, acoustics, and energy use. It assesses the performance issues and inter-relationships between IEQ and energy in a new building on a hospital campus in the city of Bristol, United Kingdom. The empirical evidence collated from this case study and the feedback received from the hospital staff help identify the endemic issues and constraints related to hospital buildings, such as the need for robust ventilation strategies in hospitals in urban areas that mitigate the effect of indoor and outdoor air pollution and ensuring the use of planned new low-carbon technologies. Whilst the existing guidelines for building design provide useful instructions for the protection of hospital buildings against ingress of particulate matter from outdoors, more advanced filtration strategies may be required to enact chemical reactions required to control the concentration levels of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and benzene. Further lessons for improved performance in operation and maintenance of hospitals are highlighted. These include ensuring that the increasingly available metering and monitoring data in new buildings, through building management systems, is used for efficient and optimal building operations for better IEQ and energy management. Overall, the study highlights the need for an integrated and holistic approach to building performance to ensure that healthy environments are provided while energy efficiency targets are met.

BIM for Healthy Buildings: An Integrated Approach of Architectural Design based on IAQ Prediction

The relationship between users and the built environment represents a fundamental aspect of health. The factors that define the properties linked to health and well-being are increasingly becoming part of building design. In these terms, building information modelling (BIM) and BIM-based performance simulation take on a priority role. Among the key features for the design of Healthy Buildings, indoor air quality (IAQ) plays a central role. There are numerous indoor pollutants with significant health effects; volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are to be mentioned among these. The paper presents the proposal of an integrated workflow in the BIM process for the check and control of VOC emissions from building materials and their concentration in confined environments. The workflow is developed through the systematisation of IAQ parameters for the open BIM standard, the integration in the BIM process of a numerical model for the prediction of the VOCs concentration in the indoor environment, and the development of model checkers for performance verification. The results show a good adhesion between the numerical model and the implementation in BIM, providing the designer with a rapid control instrument of IAQ in the various phases of the building design. The present study is the first development focused on TVOC, but implementable concerning other aspects of IAQ, as needed for the effectiveness of performance building-based design for health and wellness issues.

Governance in Occupational Safety and Health in the Aspect of Indoor Air Quality in Malaysia

Occupational safety and health are a field that is often attracted by various parties and organizations and is a modern social movement. The issue of the deterioration of indoor air quality in the work environment is one of the environmental issues. However, when discussing the issue of indoor air quality in terms of occupational safety and health in Malaysia, most of the studies conducted were more focused on the aftermath of indoor air quality and steps its escort to ensure internal air quality problems in the work environment are more temporary. The implementation of governance in occupational safety and health in the aspects of indoor air quality in Malaysia is divided into two, through legal and non-legal methods. Based on the basic beliefs of sustainability governance there are two main approaches namely holistic approach and reductionism. Thus, this study discusses whether the implementation of governance in occupational safety and health governance in the aspects of indoor air quality is influenced by one or a combination of holistic approaches and reductionism based on the analysis of relevant documents. The findings show that each approach has its own payoff and importance in ensuring the implementation of governance occupational safety and health with the involvement of various and structured stakeholders.

INDOOR AIR QUALITY ISSUES. CASE STUDY: THE MULTIPURPOSE SPORTS HALL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ORADEA

The present paper is a multidisciplinary investigation of the indoor air quality inside the Multipurpose Hall of the University of Oradea, based both on specific monitoring and questionnaire-based survey to identify people s perception in this regard. The monitoring, carried out during October-November 2016 when the heating did not work, was focused on: relative air temperature and humidity (Thermohygrometer data logger Klimalogg Pro), carbon dioxide (CO2) (Extech Instruments CO250 model automatic gas analyzer), air microflora investigation (Koch sedimentation method in accordance with applicable standards). Monitoring results showed: an optimal level of temperature and humidity, so that sports competitions can be carried out at a good level, and a small to medium level of microbial contamination. The sociological survey showed that only a small percentage of respondents identified negative aspects of indoor air quality or had negative physical symptoms related to poor indoor air exposure.

Categories of indoor environmental quality and building energy demand for heating and cooling

Maintaining suitable indoor climate conditions is a need for the occupants’ well being, while requiring very strictly thermal comfort conditions and very high levels of indoor air quality in buildings represents also a high expense of energy, with its consequence in terms of environmental impact and cost. In fact, it is well known that the indoor environmental quality (IEQ), considering both thermal and indoor air quality aspects, has a primary impact not only on the perceived human comfort, but also on the building energy consumption. This issue is clearly expressed by the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2002/92/EC, together with the most recent 2010/31/EU, which underlines that the expression of a judgment about the energy consumption of a building should be always joint with the corresponding indoor environmental quality level required by occupants. To this aim, the concept of indoor environment categories has been introduced in the EN 15251 standard. These categories range from I to III, where category I refers to the highest level of indoor climate requirement. In the challenge of reducing the environmental impact for air conditioning in buildings, it is essential that IEQ requirements are relaxed in order to widen the variations of the temperature ranges and ventilation air flow rates. In this paper, by means of building energy simulation, the heating and cooling energy demand are calculated for a mechanically controlled office building where different indoor environmental quality levels are required, ranging from category I to category III of EN 15251. The building is located in different European cities (Moscow, Torino and Athens), characterized by significantly different wheatear conditions. The mutual relation between heating and cooling energy demand and the required levels of IEQ is highlighted. The simulations are performed on a typical office room which is adopted as a reference in validation tests of the European Standard EN 15265 to validate calculation procedures of energy use for space heating and cooling.

Some Aspects of Indoor Air Quality in Romania

Because people tend to spend most of their time indoors at home and often in their work-places, the radioactivity of building materials, chemicals released by plastics, polishing substances, furnishings, paints, toners, solvents, deodo risers, tobacco smoke as well as noise levels, thermal comfort and illumination are major concerns with respect to indoor air pollution and hygiene. This paper aims to emphasise the problems and sources of pollutants indoors in Romania and to review some selected results obtained by Romanian research groups. Although interest in and some legal requirements on accepted pollu tant concentrations existed before 1990, a role for environmental protection and policy has only come to the fore over the past few years. Many studies have been made and the results of these presented at a number of symposia, this showing the deep concern which exists over pollution problems in general and especially those of air contamination.

Some Aspects of Indoor Air Quality in Romania

Because people tend to spend most of their time indoors at home and often in their work-places, the radioactivity of building materials, chemicals released by plastics, polishing substances, furnishings, paints, toners, solvents, deodorisers, tobacco smoke as well as noise levels, thermal comfort and illumination are major concerns with respect to indoor air pollution and hygiene. This paper aims to emphasise the problems and sources of pollutants indoors in Romania and to review some selected results obtained by Romanian research groups. Although interest in and some legal requirements on accepted pollutant concentrations existed before 1990, a role for environmental protection and policy has only come to the fore over the past few years. Many studies have been made and the results of these presented at a number of symposia, this showing the deep concern which exists over pollution problems in general and especially those of air contamination.

Air quality control in commercial buildings

This paper reviews aspects of indoor air quality as they relate to the ventialtion of commercial buildings. Also outlined are a variety of energy efficient approaches to ventilation