Assessment of Indoor Air Quality
Today we were invited to a nine-story building situated on a busy road in London. The building consists of three individual blocks , one block was used for accommodation and two blocks were used as multi-storey open plan offices. The building complex has a canteen and welfare facilities on the ground floor with open plan offices on the upper floors. The ventilation in the building is provided by a building wide ventilation management system, with the fresh air intakes for the offices situated on the East-North side of the building, towards the properties situated on the neighbouring street. Our client instructed us to carry out an assessment of the indoor air quality in relation to selected chemical contaminants as employees working in the 3rd and 2nd floor of office block 2 had reported intermittent odours related to food preparation, fire and smoke. The employees were concerned about smoke related odours and possible health risks from smoke, however none of these employees had reported adverse health symptoms to indicate that this was the case.
Identifying Volatile Organic Compounds
Our surveyor concluded that the concentration of volatile organic compounds, hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and polyaromatic hydrocarbons PAH associated with fire, smoke and soot were not significant as they did not exceed the recommended limits so were not considered a health risk to the staff. Although the measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas showed that the concentration of CO2 was marginally elevated in the working environment in comparison to the environmental background. The concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the working environment did not exceed the recommended limit, this indicates good ventilation and is unlikely to cause adverse health symptoms. The concentration of respirable and inhalable particulates in the working environment did not exceed the recommended limit either, therefore did not pose a risk to health and indicates good filtration of the outside air.
Recommendations to maintain adequate indoor air quality
Our surveyor recommended the client to install carbon filters in the building management systems as they would be effective in eliminating odours from the outside air and from the cooking related activities.
