Level and Formation Peculiarities of Chemical and Physical Pollution in the Workplaces

Abstract

The use of computers, printers, copiers, other electronic equipment and technological processes increases indoor air pollution. Traditional collection of previous home and office air pollutants as sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, dust and alike is enriched with other pollutants as ozone, volatile organic compounds, noise, ultraviolet radiation. The growing use of office equipment in combination with health concerns and limited evidence whether and how this equipment can emit harmful chemicals demand systematic research into pollutant emissions from office equipment.

The measurements were carried out in the workplaces (in welding and copying premises) to estimate noise pollution, the level of ozone and aerosol number concentrations, the microclimate parameters (temperature, relative humidity). The sound level in the copying premises increased up to 75 dBA and mostly simultaneously varied with the aerosol particles and ozone concentration. During the copying machine non-working hours the ozone concentration varied about 4 μg m^-³, and the aerosol number concentration was up to 40·10⁶ m^-3. When copying was performed the ozone concentration increased from 1 up to 270 μg m^-³ and the aerosol number concentration exceeded (10-315)·10⁶ m^-3. The results have shown that ozone concentration in a welding room can increase up to 1850 μg m^-3 and UVB radiation intensity up to 1.78 mW cm^-2. It is established that the correlation coefficient between these parameters was 0.99 during the analyzed period. No increase in the thermal and noise pollution above the limited level associated with copying has been determined