Background & Objectives : Hospital indoor air contains a wide range of airborne pathogenic bioaerosols which have a significant impact on health care staff’ health and welfare. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of ventilation system types on occupational exposure of the health care staffs to airborne bioaerosols in the isolation room based on the patient bed arrangements and the standing locations of the health care staff.

 Methods: Personal exposures were measured based on five given types of ventilation system, 2 patient bed arrangements (at a corner and in the middle of the room), and two different standing locations for the health care staff (standing close to the patient’s bed, and down a side section of the bed). For personal sampling, filtration method recommended by th e American conference of governmental industrial hygienists(ACGIH) was used.

 Result: The highest exposure to airborne bioaerosols was observed when the ventilation system was switched off. There were significant decreases in the bioaerosols concentration after using all types of ventilation system (P _value <0.001). The ventilation capacities of 12 air changes per hour showed the best results. No significant differences were found between the bioaerosols concentrations based on the patient bed arrangements as well as the standing locations of the health care staff s (P _value > 0.05).

  Conclusions : The most effective ventilation system for decreasing health care staff’ exposures in the isolation room was associated with supplying of air from a circular grill located on the northern wall and exhausting it through a linear slot located on the southern wall (type 1) with the ventilation rate of 12 air changes per hour.

  Background­ and objectives : Research has consistently shown that air quality personal factors and work related factors were the most effective parameters for sick building syndrome. Several epidemiological studies have been carried out to show the prevalence of the sick building syndrome among the office workers but less attention has been paid to the relation of the sick building syndrome and the environmental parameters. In this work, the relationship between sick building symptoms and indoor environmental factors of two office buildings were studied.

  Methods: In this cross- sectional study, the sick building symptoms among two office building workers of Petroleum Industry Health Organization were examined. For this purpose, a validated questionnaire was used to determine the prevalence of the sick building syndromes and the relationship between personal and environmental factors. Meantime, indoor environmental factors including noise, light, humidity, air velocity , temperature and CO₂ concentration were measured with appropriate calibrated instrumentations.

  Results: The results revealed that there is a significant relationship between CO₂ concentration as an air quality factor and some sick building symptoms including nausea, headache, nasal irritation, shortness of breath and dry throat. A significant relationship (P-Value < 0.05) was determined between the noise exposure and headache as well as dizziness. The light intensity had a significant impact (P-Value < 0.05) on dry skin, eye pain and malaise.

  Conclusion: Sick building symptoms among the women were higher than men. Environmental factors and indoor air quality had major impact on sick building symptoms in office buildings.

Introduction: Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes (BTEX) are important parts of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) family, which are widely used in many industries. These have been classified as carcinogenic compounds and the neurotoxic effects of BTEX have been reported; so, a screening evaluation of workplace air quality for determining BTEX may seem necessary.

Methods: In order to measure the workplace concentrations of BTEX in the hydrometallurgical process, six sampling stations were selected. Volatile organic compounds were analyzed using the method 1501 of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Activated carbon was used for sampling and samples were analyzed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID).

Results: The highest measured levels were observed for ethylbenzene at sampling station 1 (0.8 ppm). The concentration of benzene in this sampling location was 0.05 ppm. The highest toluene concentration was reported at sampling station 4 (0.15 ppm) and the lowest toluene concentration was 0.02 ppm at sampling station 6.

Conclusions: Indoor air quality in workplaces can be affected by the presence of BTEX. The results of measurements of BTEX showed low concentration levels of these compounds in the studied workplace