ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Assessing Air Quality in Various Indoor Environments of a University Library
 
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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
 
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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.
eISSN:2083-5906
ISSN:1230-1485
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