The assessment of chemical compounds in indoor air of student hostels in UniMAP

Abstract

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) consists of several components such as type and concentration of pollutant that emitted in air environment, thermal comfort of occupant and adverse effect to human towards the inhalation of pollutants. This study aim to investigate IAQ at Pauh Putra and Tan Sri Aishah Ghani hostel in Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP). The selected chemical compounds in this study are total volatile organic compound (TVOC), carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O₃). Thermal comfort assessment such as temperature and relative humidity (RH) were evaluated as well in these building. The TVOC, CO₂, CO and O₃ data at Pauh Putra hostel ranged between not detected to 0.17 ppm, 420 ppm to 567 ppm, not detected to 2.20 ppm and not detected to 0.028 ppm respectively. While TVOC, CO₂, CO and O₃ at Tan Sri Aishah Ghani hostel ranged between not detected to 0.13 ppm, 425 ppm to 697 ppm, not detected to 1.40 ppm and not detected to 0.020 ppm respectively. The outdoor TVOC, CO₂, CO and O₃ at Pauh Putra hostel ranged between not detected to 0.05 ppm, 437 ppm to 807 ppm, not detected to 0.10 ppm and not detected to 0.010 ppm respectively. For outdoor TVOC, CO₂, CO and O₃ at Tan Sri Aishah Ghani hostel ranged between not detected to 0.06 ppm, 447 ppm to 472 ppm, not detected to 1.80 ppm and not detected to 0.040 ppm respectively. The mean Indoor Outdoor Ratio (IOR) values for TVOC, CO₂, CO and O₃ was 0.84, 1.12, 15.53, and 0.62 respectively. This value suggesting that the source of chemical pollutants comes from indoor building. The temperature recorded at Pauh Putra hostel ranged between 30.4⁰C-35.1⁰C and 30.8⁰C-34.2⁰C recorded in Tan Sri Aishah Ghani hostel. RH value recorded ranged between 39%-61% at Tan Sri Aishah Ghani and 40%- 57% at Pauh Putra hostel. The observations of IAQ were below the Malaysia guideline (Code of Practice, 2010) which indicates that the risk of adverse health effects to human is low. Nevertheless, these pollutants require continuous observation as they have intensive properly to humans and able to resulted to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS).