Personal exposure

The adverse effect of various indoor pollutants on occupants’ health have been recognized. In public spaces flu viruses may spread from person to person by airflow generated by various traditional ventilation methods, like natural ventilation and mixing ventilation (MV Personalized ventilation (PV) supplies clean air close to the occupant and directly into the breathing zone. Studies show that it improves the inhaled air quality and reduces the risk of airborne cross-infection in comparison with total volume (TV) ventilation.

Recently, a big change in indoor air environment has been recognized. This new problem is caused byhigh air tightness, high adiabatic and newly building material, and has been the cause of healthproblems which is called Sick Building Syndrome. This study has been conducted to understand thepresent state of indoor air pollution by chemical pollutions in 23 Japanese large-scale buildings to beopen for public people. We also investigated the personal exposure level of employees under theperiod of working at the above-mentioned building and of staying at individual houses.

Personal exposure to total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), benzene and toluene of 100 Milan office workers was assessed through personal air monitoring at home, in the office, and during commuting. Biological monitoring was performed by measuring blood benzene and toluene concentrations together with urinary trans-trans-muconic acid ( t,t-MA) and cotinine at the end of the monitoring period. The geometric means of the total 24-h personal exposure were 514 μg/m3 for TVOCs, 21.2 μg/m3 for benzene and 35.2 μg/m3 for toluene.