Analysis of contaminant remowal efficiency assessment in a ventilated room

This paper reports a critical analysis of the assessment of contaminant removal efficiency. Measurements have been carried out in a ventilated room equipped with a pine wood floor, which emits Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), considered as air pollutants in this paper. Thereafter, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed. CFD results are compared to measurements to check their accuracy. Moreover, air quality within the ventilated room is numerically analysed via indices.

A study on the identification and quantification of sources of VOC's in 5 air-conditioned Singapore office buildings

For that study a mass balanced model is applied to determine area-specific emissions rates in office buildings. Sources of VOCs were identified, put into 3 broad categories and quantified : building materials (23.7 %), ventilation systems (39.0 %) and occupants and their activities (37.3 %) .

Exposure to the mixtures of organic compounds in homes in Japan

This paper describes characteristics of statistical distributions for concentrations of 17 VOCs and 11 aldehydes in homes in Japan. First a probability model was applied to the occupant's simultaneous exposure to the mixtures in homes, then joint probability distributions of 28 organic compounds were generated from the best-fitted distributions of individual compounds.

On the study of a sick building : the case of Athens Air Traffic Control Tower

Sick syndrome episodes were reported by the employees of Athens Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT). In this study recent indoor air quality measurements made in ATCT are presented and discussed. The data indicated that VOCs concentrations were above outdoor levels in certain places of the building, some actions were taken to improve the indoor environment and afterwards a second set of measurements were made, inside and outsite the ATCT building : the results indicated an improvement of the indoor air quality.

Local Exhaust Efficiency in an Operating Room Ventilated by Horizontal Unidirectional Airflow

The paper examines the efficiency of a local exhaust applied during an orthopaedic surgicaloperation. During operations performing hip replacements bone cement is sometimes applied to fasten the new metal hip to the existing thighbone, especially in case of elderly patients. The bone cement emits harmful VOCs that may influence the operating room personnel and the patient. A local exhaust is applied to reduce the VOC concentration in the operating room air, however, apparently without success.

Investigation of building materials as VOC sources in indoor air

This paper give descriptions of the tasks conducted in the two phases of the material emissions project that lasted from 1996 to 2000. The main aim of that client-supported project was the creation and maintenance of a material emission database and single-zone indoor air quality simulation program called MEDB-IAQ.

Information from the EC MATHIS project

This project lasted from February 1998 to January 2001. The main result from "MATerials for Healthy Indoor Spaces and more energy efficient buildings" project is SOPHIE : a database of indoor pollutants sources, a useful tool for the selection of low polluting materials and components. Other interesting results have been obtained :
- SOPHIE protocol testing for building material
- A new model for IAQ and energy efficiency
- 3 new methods and first results concerning study sorption and diffusion properties of VOCs in the materials

Quantification of the effects of air velocity on VOC emissions from building materials

The effects of environmental factors can be important in simulating indoor levels of VOCs emitted from building materials. In this study the effort has been made to quantify the relationship between air movements and emissions of decane applied on an oak substrate.
The aim of this research is to determine the correlation between environmental factors and coefficients of mass-transfer based emission models in a mathematical form.

Residential exposure to volatile organic compounds and asthma

A literature review finds that observational studies have found a correlation between exposure to VOCs and asthma, whereas interventional studies did not manage to show it. This paper studies two hypothesis to explain that discrepancy in findings.

Comparison of outdoor and indoor mobile source-related volatile organic compounds between low-and-high-floor apartments

The hypothesis that there is a vertical variation in mobile source-related volatile organic compound (VOC ) concentrations in high-rise apartment buildings is examined in that paper.

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