Indoor environment quality and related health effects of occupants in laboratories building of public university / Nor Asikin Badaruzaman

Laboratory basically is a facility where a relatively small amount of chemical are used regardless of its application. Ventilation system together with exhaust system acts as the most important safety feature to control the chemical from affecting the human health. Unhealthy air quality usually indicated insufficient ventilation in the building. Apart from that, thermal comfort level was important to keep the occupant in a free stress working space. Therefore, the purpose of this paper was to investigate if the ventilation rate and fume hood face velocity is adhering to the international guideline as stated in ASHRAE Standard 62.1 and ANSI Z9.5. Then thermal comfort level was analysed by monitored the temperature and relative humidity level in the building and compared it with ASHRAE Standard 55. Air pollutant (n=30) was measured to determine the air quality level in the laboratory building (n=30) and linked it to the human health and perception of the laboratory occupants. This study involved participant from students (n=150) and laboratory staffs (n=19) of three departments. Diffuser air velocity (n=27) and face velocity of fume hood (n=26) is measured using anemometer, whereas the relative humidity (n=30), temperature (n=30) and air pollutant (CO, C02, TVOC and PMJO) is measured using EVM 7. Ventilation rate is obtained from the air velocity calculation. The average mean of air pollutant which was CO2=377.20±46.80ppm, CO0.00±0.3ppm, TVOC=2.13±0.83ppm did not exceed the recommended level except for PMJO with a mean average of 63.933±39.30|ug/m3. However, all of the air pollutant is found exceeded the recommended level in certain laboratory and store, this indicates a bad IAQ level in the laboratory. The finding was supported by two sick-building symptoms which is more prevalence amongst lab staff compared to student which are cough and drowsiness with a p-value less than 0.05. The average mean level of relative humidity1^.232±7.36% and temperature=23.44±3.54°C did not represent the whole situation as the required thermal comfort level was not achieved. The average mean level of face velocity is 0.51±0.27m/s with certain lab has a high level of face velocity and some have a lower level. Ventilation rate average mean was 3.92±4.63ACH which was higher than recommended level. As a conclusion, hypothesis was achieved as there was an association between the indoor air environment and health of occupant in lab. This was proven by the longer working hours of the lab staff that have a more prevalence of health symptom compared to the students, further assessment is suggest to be conducted so that the optimum performance and energy efficiency can be obtained, thus reducing the cost of the operation and maintenance, without compromising the occupants health.