Combustion gases from diesel engines of trucks accumulate in the apparatus rooms of fire stations when fire trucks and emergency vehicles leave for or return from an emergency run. The situation is most extreme when fire trucks leave for an emergency run. All doors are closed for security reasons and combustion gases become trapped in closed apparatus rooms. These gases can migrate to the living quarters located next to the apparatus rooms, causing discomfort or potential health problems for personnel returning to the building.
The CIBSE is to publish new guidance on environmental criteria later this year. This includes new material on Indoor Air Quality which provides a strategy for minimising indoor air quality problems in buildings and improving the effectiveness of outdoor air supply in controlling indoor pollution. This Chapter explains the reasons for this approach and the basis for the guidance given.
A cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate the occurrence of the sick building syndrome (SBS) among office workers in Mauritius. A walk-through inspection and a questionnaire survey were carried out in 21 office building complexes to evaluate the prevalence of risk indicators for SBS symptoms among 302 office workers. Indoor climatic variables monitored were: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, air temperature, relative humidity, air movement, noise and light. All data collected were analysed using the EPl-info software.
Good indoor air quality (IAQ) enhances occupant health, comfort and workplace productivity. This issue has become more critical in a country like Singapore that has no other natural resources except manpower. In addition, Singapore is located in the tropical region with a hot and humid climate and a large number of the buildings are served by air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) systems to maintain a thermally comfortable indoor environment. The provision of a thermally comfortable indoor environment for the occupants is only one aspect in achieving better indoor air quality.
Efficient control of ventilation systems needs information on indoor air pollutant concentration. But most of the time, the pollutant concentration is not measured. However, outdoor air pollution forecast models are becoming operational and a relation between outdoor and indoor pollutant concentration may be used to predict pollutant concentration peaks and to infer recommendations to reduce its value . A prediction model of the outdoor/indoor air pollutant transfer, based on experimental data, was obtained using multiple linear regression.
The opportunities offered by National Lottery Funding has focused attention in recent years upon the poor conditions in which much of our written history has to be stored. The documentary record of each county is held in a record office and pressures on local authority spending have meant that often only basic and sometimes inadequate provision for the safe keeping of the documents has been made.
Perceived air quality, symptoms, and perception of the environment were studied in a naturally ventilated office building in which a felt carpet was substituted by linoleum on the first floor and by polyolefine floor tiles, known from previous studies to be a low-polluting floor material on the second floor, while the felt carpet remained unchanged on the ground floor. A panel of 36 untrained subjects occupied the offices on each storey for a period of one hour in a balanced design on a day when normal occupants were absent.
Login