The VOC, CO2 and CO levels of the main laboratory of a faculty hospital in Turkey

M.Sarper Erdogan sarper@istanbul.edu.tr

INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                          

INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                          

Indoor air quality has gained great attention in recent years, mainly due to the large amount of time spent indoors in modern times. Although we tend to believe that the buildings in which we live will shelter us from harmful substances in the ambient environment, it is not justified. There could be the air polluted with harmful substances such as VOCs, CO2 and CO [1]. Indoor air quality in workplace caught attention of scientists and the public in recent years. As hospitals are places where sick people seek remedy for themselves, they are also workplaces of health practitioners[2]. Especially the laboratories pose as many health risks on the employees as they do on the visitors. Beside the contamination risk of body fluids of sick people there could be also air pollution because of working in small rooms with heavy equipments which impose another risk for the working people[3]. In this study we measured the VOCs, CO2 and CO levels in the main laboratory of Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty to see whether the safety limits were exceeded.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

This study is a descriptive study presenting the VOC, CO2 and CO levels in the main laboratory of Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty. The data was collected in November of 2009. Indoor concentration levels of VOC, CO2 and CO was measured for a period of 8 h during the workday (8.30 a.m.- 4.30 p.m.). The main laboratory is located in the hospital building and comprises one common waiting room and the operation rooms. We grouped the operation rooms according to the staff working in: “rooms with one person”, “rooms with two” and “rooms with more than two”. We then selected one from each category and also the waiting room to carry out the measurements. The surveyed places are ventilated naturally or by air conditioners (Table 1). Smoking indoors is forbidden and house-cleanings are done in the very morning before operations start. The measurements were accomplished by using IAQRAE (Indoor air quality monitor) Multiple gas detector.

Table 1: The physical conditions of main laboratory

RESULTS

The VOC, CO2 and CO levels of the waiting room and operation rooms of the main laboratory are shown on the Table 2.

Table 2: The VOC, CO2 and CO levels of the waiting room and operation rooms in the main laboratory

CONCLUSION

While CO and VOCs levels were under the limits set by WHO and EPA, CO2 levels exceeded the 1000 ppm limits of WHO and EPA. These high levels are pointing to the need of an urgent preventive action. They let us consider the importance of monitorizing the indoor pollution levels in hospitals. There should be air conditioning systems to be switched on according to the needs of indoor air quality. Further investigations are necessary to develop and test the strategies how to ensure improved indoor air quality in the laboratories of the hospitals.

REFERENCES

1. Santamouris, M., Synnefa, A., Asssimakopoulos, M., Livada, I., Pavlou, K. (2008). Experimental investigation of the air flow and indoor carbon dioxide concentration in classrooms with intermittent natural ventilation. Energy and Buildings 40, 1833–1843

2. Chaloulakou, A., Mavroidis, I., Duci, A. (2003). Indoor and outdoor carbon monoxide concentration relationships at different microenvironments in the Athens area. Chemosphere 52, 1007–1019

3. Helmis, C.G., Tzoutzas, J., Flocas, H.A., Halios, C.H., Stathopoulou, O.I. (2007). Indoor air quality in a dentistry clinic. Science of the Total Environment 377, 349–365.