Most single-family homes in America today are designed with a single-zone climate control system. This is typically an energy inefficient and ineffective method of conditioning a home. Multi-zone climate control systems are considered to provide improved means of conditioning single-family homes. More so is the case with multi-story homes where thermal balance is difficult to achieve between the lower and upper floors using a single-zone system.
The influence of inhabitants on indoor air quality (IAQ) was studied. The aim of the study was to find out how the inhabitants themselves and their living activities affect the IAQ. The concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and ammonia (NH3) in indoor air was measured in inhabited and in empty dwellings. A air change rates were also defined. Altogether 24 dwellings were examined. The results were compared with the surface floor area of the dwellings, the number of inhabitants, the number of pets and the absence or presence of smoking.
On March the 1st 2000 the Finnish Tobacco Act was amended, and now includes restrictions on smoking in restaurants and bars. Establishments can reserve a maximum of 50% of their service area for smokers, and the spreading of tobacco smoke into non-smoking areas must be prevented. In addition, the working areas at bar counters have to be smoke-free. 16 restaurants and bars participated in the study both before and after the introduction of the Finnish Tobacco Act.
Restaurant workers have a high risk to be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in their work. In Finland the latest tobacco Act has set more stringent requirements for the smoking in restaurants. Despite of the tightened legislation most of the restaurant employees are still continuously exposed to ETS. Ventilation techniques enable significantly to reduce employees exposure to ETS in hospitality facilities, where smoking is permitted.
The purpose of this study is to quantify the effect of various design and operating parameters on smoking room performance. Twenty-eight experiments were conducted in a simulated smoking room with a smoking machine and an automatic door opener. Measurements were made of air flows, pressures, temperatures, two particle-phase ETS tracers, two gas-phase ETS tracers, and sulfur hexafluoride. Quantification of leakage flows, the effect of these leaks on smoking room performance and non-smoker exposure, and the relative importance of each leakage mechanism are presented.
A variety of strategies have been implemented to protect nonsmokers from second hand smoke; these include separation or restricting smoking to selected areas, installation of air cleaners, increased ventilation, and outright prohibition of smoking. The concentrations of nicotine were measured and examined in different venues as a function of the techniques employed.
Reactions among pollutants in the intake air can increase the concentrations of irritating and hazardous products in the indoor air and may lead to an increase of the sick building syn-drome (SBS). A short description of an experimental set-up that enables the studies of the impact of different settings of a full scale ventilation system on air with different ambient compositions is presented. Preliminary sampling using Tenax TA show that some reaction rates are increased in the experimental set-up, which could indicate that heterogenous reactions occur.
Accurate characterization of particle concentrations indoors is critical to exposure assessments. It is estimated that indoor particle concentrations depend strongly on outdoor concentrations. For health scientists, knowledge of the factors that control the relationship of indoor particle concentrations to outdoor levels is particularly important. In this paper, we identify and evaluate sources of data for those factors that affect the transport to and concentration of outdoor particles indoors.
Irritative and respiratory symptoms are reported from people working or living in damp and mouldy buildings, but signs of pulmonary involvement have not yet been found. We studied 522 teachers working in 15 primary schools with various degrees of dampness and mould growth. Symptoms, spirometry, CO-diffusion, and bronchial challenge was compared to classification of dampness and mould growth in or outside classrooms.
Authors assessed building-related risk factors for lower respiratory symptoms in office workers. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in 1993 collected data during indoor environmental health investigations of workplaces. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess relationships between lower respiratory symptoms in office workers and risk factors plausibly related to microbiologic contamination.
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