| Author: | Wong, Sheung-wai |
| Title: | A study of occupational exposure to dust during interior fitting out renovation |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 1999 |
| Subject: | Dust -- Health aspects Indoor air pollution -- Health aspects Interior decoration -- Health aspects Occupational diseases Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Multi-disciplinary Studies Department of Building Services Engineering |
| Pages: | ix, 122 leaves : ill. ; 31 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Air quality standards from most of the occupational health department in the world had been established and revised from time to time. Most of the occupational heaths "standards" are set up for special industry factory processes, where single sources exist. During building interior fitting out renovation, in order to reduce the possibility of air circulating the airborne dust inside the renovating area, ventilation system always switched off. Dusts will easily remained suspended in the air, and finally inhaled by workers. Much concern for those working in interior fitting out renovation work site is an essential. The indoor Respirable Suspended Matter (PM10) were recorded prior to, during and after an interior fitting out renovation project on the 4th floor, in the new Business Centre of Eaton Hotel. It was found that before and after interior fitting out renovation, the indoor PM10 levels for average 9-hour office activities with the presence of a number of smokers were over 230 ug/m3. The concentration levels varied from 63 ug/m3 to 2249 ug/m3, which influenced by different kind of indoor activities. During renovation period, the daily (from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) average value of indoor particles level was over 3500 ug/m3, and the maximum level could even up to 33.155 mg/m3 when the workers were demolishing a 105mm thick brick wall. Exposure to such high concentration indoors particulate level may result in respiratory related health problems, or decreased lung function that can be experienced as shortness of breath. However, there are no standards existing respond the renovation workers exposure to dusts. These levels are compared with some existing general standards from Labour Department. Indoor air pollutants elimination, reduction and control methods are suggested and reviewed. To control the contamination at source and prevent it from entering the air to be breathed by renovation workers is the major objective. Respiratory protection is a form of personal protection and must not be regarded as an effective substitute for engineering control of dust. To protect occupational health safety from pollution exposures, a systematically approach for governing indoor occupational exposures limit need be formed especially for interior fitting out renovation project. Further research is required to quantify the chemical contents of the dusts so that the exposure limit can be set up a more sound basis. For the time being, it is suggested that "A reference note on Occupational Exposure Limits of chemical substances in the work environment" from Labour department shall be used as a guideline to assess the adequacy of the control measures. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b14852457.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 4.75 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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