ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Assessing Air Quality in Various Indoor
Environments of a University Library
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Environmental Health, Occupational Health and Safety, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
2
Occupational Health Safety and Environmental Epidemiology Group (OHSEE), Khon Kaen University, Thailand
3
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
4
School of Occupational Health and Safety, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand
Submission date: 2023-10-02
Final revision date: 2023-11-21
Acceptance date: 2023-12-16
Online publication date: 2024-03-04
Publication date: 2024-04-09
Corresponding author
Pongsit Boonruksa
School of Occupational Health and Safety, Suranaree University of Technology, 111 University Ave., 30000, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2024;33(3):3283-3292
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Indoor air quality is an important aspect of buildings, including libraries where various activities
take place. This study aimed to investigate indoor air quality in different microenvironments in a library
in Thailand. The indoor air monitoring was conducted in a library for 4 microenvironments: reading,
librarian, cafe shop, and photocopy shop zone. Respiratory dust and bioaerosols were analyzed using
NIOSH methods 0600, and 0800, respectively. Air movements were determined using an anemometer.
Particulate matters (PM) were measured using DustTrak; carbon dioxide and comfort parameters were
measured using Q-TRAK with 30-minute average for 8 hours. The results showed that the means of
respiratory dust, PM10, PM4, PM2.5 in all zones met the standard, however, temporary variation revealed
that PM4 and PM2.5 exceeded the standard in the afternoon. Fungal concentration was above 500 cfu/m3
in the photocopy shop zone where the highest %RH and the lowest air movement were found. Carbon
dioxide concentrations in the cafe shop zone exceeded 1,000 ppm. The real-time measurements showed
significant strong correlations between the different PM sizes, moderate correlations between %RH and
temperature, and CO2 and PM10. The findings suggest that preventive and corrective measures should be
implemented to improve indoor air quality in the library.