measurement

The aim of the article is to study the effect of removing small airborne particles in an office building.The standard particle filters were replaced with highly efficient filters. Occupants answered questionnaire weekly and multiple environment measurements were done.The enhanced filtration reduced the concentration of smallest particles, symptoms were not reduced, but performance-related mental states improved.

This article studied the exposure to 45 defined volatil organic compounds in an university art school, ventilated with a 100% exhaust mechanical ventilation system. Several students wore passive dosimeters.Floors where no emission of VOCs occurred had no detectable exposures : the conclusions show that a non-recirculating ventilation system can eliminate indoor air quality issues between floors.

The RAGENA model of radon takes into account all the parameters and processes affecting radon levels (in the source, its transport, its entry into a dwelling and its accumulation indoors).The model has been tested in a mediterranean house. The results given by the model are similar to the ones obtained experimentally.

To provide additional validation data for the multizone airflow and contaminant model, CONTAMW, experiments were performed in an occupied 3-story townhouse in Reston, VA. A tracer gas, sulfur hexaflouride (SF6), was manually injected within one room of the house and the concentration of SF6 was measured in each zone. This same process was then recreated in CONTAMW and the resulting predictions were statistically compared to the measured values. A total of 10 experiments were conducted and simulated between May 2000 and June 2001.

The aim of this study is to compare the exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) of people in smoking and nonsmoking dining room. Levels of airborne pollutants and changes in urinary cotinine and nicotine levels were examined for 8 restaurants and 97 nonsmoking subjects (employees, patrons and referents).
Levels were significantly lower in the nonsmoking dining areas than in the smoking areas, and for the patrons than for the employees.

This article is a study of the air quality at a bus terminal. Presence and concentration of indoor air quality indices were determined by field surveys and sampling. Bus emission rates, occupational exposure and ventilation requirements to have a correct indoor air quality were simulated by mathematical model.
The results show that the natural ventilation rates are too low for having a good indoor air quality, and that pollutants emission varies with the temperature.

In this study, associations between concentration levels of airborne particles and fungi were examined in 14 houses in Brisbane. No association was found between the fungal spore and submicrometer particles or PM2.5 concentration, but a weak link was found between fungal and supermicrometre particle concentrations : similarity in behaviour lies in the relation of the contaminant with the distance from the source.

The changes in occurrence and the distribution of airborne fungi when they are transported in the airstream from the outdoor air to the indoor air are not well-known. For that study, fungal samples were tested in different locations in the HVAC systems with a six-stage Andersen Sampler with malt extract agar. The results showed that the fungal species changed according to those locations.

This paper is a review of the techniques and equipment used during the last 20 years, to monitor Particulate Matter personal exposures, microenvironment concentrations and the constituants of sampled particulate matter.

For that study, computer simulations and calculations of outdoor airflow rates and indoor air quality were made in parallel with site measurements in two Shanga office buildings equipped with typical Variable Air Volume systems.In addition to those site measurements, electrical consumption was recorded. Simulations and calculations of the electrical consumption and energy cost were performed.The site recorded data and the simulations results have been then compared and analyzed.