Dust Concentration in Office Environment

Abstract

A Malaysian worker spent almost eight hours of his daily life inside his office and if the dust concentration inside the office is too high, this worker might be exposed to poor indoor air quality (IAQ). The main objective of this study is to examine the dust concentration accumulated inside carpeted offices and the effect of the concentration with the environmental parameters. The measurement was carried out physically at four offices in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn (UTHM) having enclosed or open space and big and small volume and evaluation is re-measured inside chamber room that mimmicked the actual offices. There are three environmental parameters investigated in this study; air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity and measured using Dust Trak Monitor 8520 and Velocicalc Meter model 8386-M-GB. It was found that in enclosed space, big volume office the air temperature is 25°C, relative humidity is 66.8%, air velocity of 0.19m/s and dust concentration of 0.058mg/m3 . As for simulation in chamber room, it was found that the air temperature is 23.4°C, relative humidity 66.1%., air velocity of 0.18m/s and dust concentration is 0.050mg/m3 . The enclosed, big size of building produced higher dust concentration due to the frequent movement happening daily. In conclusion, carpet is not a main factor that can cause dusty problem. Generally, there are several causes that can increases the dust level which are dust comes from outdoor, equipment’s or furniture in the work station. Dust also depending from frequently movement from people or occupants in a working station. However, due to aany factors, the increasing dust concentration will increase the relative humidity, and air velocity comparing to the value recommended by the ASHRAE and DOSH Malaysia standard.