Assessment of Indoor Air Quality Variation in Residential Homes in Choba Community
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the relationship between indoor air quality and the health hazard
- To ascertain the relationship between indoor air quality and indoor pollution
- To ascertain the relationship between indoor air quality and sources of indoor pollution
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Air and Indoor Pollution
Simply put, Air is a mixture of gases that surround the earth which we breathe. It is the space above the ground or that is around the earth and about things. According to Santosh, an average human being requires about 12kg of air each day, which is nearly 12 to 15 times greater than the amount of food consumed. From these, one can deduce that indoor air is that which surrounds us in any given enclosure or space, evidently very essential for human health and survival. Sometimes the purity of air can be impaired with refuse material, odors and some other noxious chemicals and particulates otherwise called pollutants. According to Aerias, indoor air can be 100 times more polluted than outdoors. On their part, Institute of Medicine, (2000) asserts that hazards in home environments are the sites of a variety of biological, chemical, and other environmental hazards. Biological hazards include infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses, molds, endotoxins, and antigens from house dust, mites, rodents and animal’s dander. Chemical hazards include environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), nitrogen and sulfur oxides, ozone, particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCS), pesticides, formaldehyde, and plasticizers. Exposures to these agents are influenced by chemicals used in building materials, furniture, and other household items; everyday practices such as heating, cooking, cleaning and home repair; and spontaneous chemical reactions in the indoor environment.
According to Atkin, the term evaluation is an assessment of value, the act of considering or examining something in order to judge its value, quality, importance, extent or condition. There are various definitions of the term, quality, by various Scholars as documented in literature, Crosby, Juran, Deming. From the documentation, one can deduce that quality deals with people’s expectations and perception on how such expectations are satisfied within a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability. Thus the strong need for evaluation of indoor air quality of buildings and reliance on Air Quality Standards by American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standard 62-1989R; UK Health and Safely Executive Guidelines (EH40/95) and International Standard Organization (ISO 14644-1:1999) for moderation and implementation. Anything short of these set standards is regarded as non-satisfactory and hence poor. The result of non-adherence to these established standards within the study area is the major problem of building related illnesses that leads to the 1.6 million deaths annually from poor indoor air quality as reported by World Health Organization, (2000).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to assessment of indoor air quality variation in residential homes in choba community.
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on assessment of indoor air quality variation in residential homes in choba community. 200 residents in choba community were selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was on assessment of indoor air quality variation in residential homes in choba community. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of indoor air quality variation in residential homes in choba community
Summary
This study was on assessment of indoor air quality variation in residential homes in choba community. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the relationship between indoor air quality and the health hazard, to ascertain the relationship between indoor air quality and indoor pollution, to ascertain the relationship between indoor air quality and sources of indoor pollution. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 residents of choba community. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up businessmen, civil servants, youths and students was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The deductions from this study are expected to lead to better understanding of the indoor air quality causative elements from cooking with dirty fuels in the study area. There is urgent need to develop new building design approaches to create healthy homes in choba community.
Recommendation
The study makes the following recommendations:
- Building occupants, management and maintenance personnel should endeavour to understand the causes and consequences of indoor air quality problems, and then work together to prevent or reduce the problems;
- Kitchen and toilets in residential buildings need to be modified and flexible designs adopted to give occupants control over their interior environment for provision of healthy homes; removal of Pollutant source should be an effective approach to resolving indoor air quality problems, and
- Pollutant loads should be documented and considered part of residential building design process as well as building management process; Such documentation should be included among materials submitted for building approval process.
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