Indoor air quality is an important environmental and occupational concern as people spend most of their time indoors. Poor indoor air quality can cause health issues like headaches, fatigue, and respiratory problems. Common indoor air pollutants come from building materials, furniture, cleaning products, smoking, and outdoor sources. Proper ventilation and identifying sources of pollution are important for evaluating indoor air quality. More research is still needed on secondary pollutants formed from indoor sources and effective strategies for reducing indoor air quality issues.

1. Indoor Air Quality
(Air Pollution and Worker Safety)
- a safety toolbox meeting presented by
C/S/A Department
Lawrence O. Galvez
Structural Engineer III (C/S/A Department)
Ventech International Services Philippines, Inc. (VISPI),
Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines
February 1, 2013

2. Purpose
 Awareness of the significance of indoor air
quality (IAQ)
 Distinguish probable sources of problem
related to IAQ encountered in usual daily
routine

3. Introduction
 Considered as a sensitive issue but a very important environmental
concern
 Most people spend most of their time indoors
- public building (malls, hospitals, offices, plants, etc.)
- vehicles (cars, airplanes, metro or subway)
 Even well-run buildings experience episodes of poor indoor air
quality (IAQ) – equipment breakdown or inadequate maintenance
 Estimates that poor IAQ cost the industry money each year in lost
productivity and medical care
 Is not simple and easy to define like a leaky faucet ( changing
interaction of complex factors)

4.  Although it is difficult to prove that specific health problems among
indoor workers have particular causes, IAQ has become a real
occupational issue
 IAQ is a suspect when building occupants experience one or
several of the following symptoms:
- Headaches
- Fatigue, shortness of breath, sinus congestion, coughing,
sneezing
- Dizziness, nausea
- Dermatitis
 Develop symptoms within a few hours of starting the workday and
feel better after leaving the building.
 Symptoms: “Sick Building Syndrome”

5.  People react differently
 Difficult to determine because the building
occupants are exposed to not one but several
adverse conditions
- slight emissions from furniture, carpets, photocopiers,
- or the perfume worn by your co-workers.
 Again these affects are impossible to trace
accurately.

6. Chemical and Particle
Exposure routes of a man in a day

7. Definition
 Indoor air quality refers to the quality of the air in a
home, school, office or other building environment -
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Typical Pollutants
- Carbon monoxide (CO) – colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is lightly lighter than air. It is toxic
to humans and animals when encountered in higher concentrations.
- Particulate matter (PM) – atmospheric particulate mattter or particulates are tiny pieces of solid or liquid
matter associated with the Earth’s atmosphere.
- Radon (Rn) – radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas occuring naturally as an indirect
decay product of uranium or thorium.
- Molds – mold spores are common component of household and workplace dust.
- Pesticides – often treated as synonymous with plant protection product, alhough it is in fact a broader
term, as pesticides are also used for non-agricultural purposes. Pesticide is generally a common or
biological agent that through its effect deters, kills or or otherwise discourages pests.
- Lead (Pb) – chemical element in the carbon group
- Asbestos – a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable
physical properties.
- Environmental Tobacco smoke

8. Indoor Air Quality
Assessments or Parameters
 Carbon Monoxide
 Formaldehyde and other VOCs
 PAH (Polyaromatic hydrocarbons)
 Radon
 Airborne Particulates
 CO2
 Mold
 Temperature and relative humidity

9. List of common indoor air contaminants and
their sources
 Carbon dioxide, tobacco smoke, perfume, viruses,
bacteria, from building occupants
 Gases, vapours, odours from furniture, carpets and
paints
 Dust, fiberglass, asbestos from building materials
 Toxic vapours, volatile organic compounds from
clansers, solvents, pesticides, disinfectants, glues
 Bacteria, spores, pollen, mites from damp areas and
stagnant water
 Ozone from photocopiers, electronic motors,
electrostatic air cleaners

10. Selected Pollutants
 Benzene
- Human carcinogen
- Outdoor sources: heavy traffic, petrol stations, or
industrial sites
- Indoor sources: environmental tobacco smoke
(discotheques), building materials, solvent use, unvented
cooking or heating, incense burning could drive peak
indoor levels up
 Formaldehyde
- Irritant, attacks eyes and nasal and upper airways
- encountered in new or renovated buildings, new
furnishings, for ozone-initiated reactions of alkene
compounds

11.  Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
- human carcinogen
- exist in gaseous and largely bound to particles
- formed in the combustion process of carbonaceous materials
at high temperature (smoking, cooking, incense, and candle
emissions, motor vehicle emissions
 Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- colorless, non-irritant, odorless and tasteless toxic gas
- produced by the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous fuels
(wood, petrol, coal, natural gas and kerosene)
- Indoor sources: incense burning in homes and public buildings
(stores and shopping malls); environmental tobacco smoke,
cooking (unvented gas appliances)
 Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)
- Occupation affected: patrol troopers, taxi drivers

12. Air Quality Index in the Philippines

13. DENR/DOH Pollution Standard Index

17. Reasons on Improved Air Quality
 Policy development on coal smoke and
photochemical smog
 Ready applicability of standards to
outdoor concentrations of air pollutants
 Feasibility of monitoring concentrations of
outdoor air on alarge scale
 Science and policy communities focused
on the public health impacts in wealthy
developed countries.

18. Final: Statement of the Problem
 There is a need to evaluate potential point
sources and determine strategies in
reducing causes of poor indoor air quality
 Few studies have been conducted on the
formations of secondary products from
indoor point sources therefore there is a
need to complement these studies

19.  References
- Indoor Air Quality Prof. Rheo Lamorena, Seminar on Environmental Wind Engineering, Aug.15-
16,2012 National Engineering Center, U.P, Campus Diliman quezon City
- Indoor Air Pollution Worse – research Manila Bulletin published June 27, 2011
- U.S. EPA – Unites States Environmental Protection Agency
http://cfpub.epa.gov/eroe/index.cfm?fuseaction=list.listBySubTopic&ch=46&s=343
- Department of Environment and Natural resources (DENR)
- Environmental Management Bureau (EMB)

20. The End
Salamat Po!