Microbiological Assessment of Indoor and Outdoor Air
CHAPTER ONE
Aims And Objectives
This study was aimed at investigating the microbial load and the quality of indoor air of four difference wards/units and outside the hospital gate of Faith Mediplex Centre, Benin City.
To isolate and characterize the airborne micro-flora from hospital environment and to ascertain their contribution to infection rate in the hospital.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Green and sustainable building programs, standards, and guidance documents (e.g., Architecture 2030 2013; ASHRAE 2014; GBI 2010; ICC 2015; USGBC 2014) are driving the trend toward low-energy buildings, and the manner in which they consider (or fail to consider) indoor air quality (IAQ) is critical to achieving energy-efficient buildings with good indoor environments. As described in the ASHRAE Indoor Air Quality Position Document (ASHRAE 2011), green building efforts directly affect decisions made during design, construction, operation, and maintenance of a building. One of the key recommendations of the position document is: “Sustainable (green) building performance codes, programs, and standards should be based on thorough consideration of the many parameters impacting IAQ to ensure that limited resources are used effectively and IAQ is not compromised for other goals.” This position is especially important given research indicating enhanced worker productivity and accompanying economic, environmental, and health benefits associated with increased ventilation in office buildings
Green and sustainable building efforts are wellintentioned, but are frequently not based on thorough consideration of the many factors impacting IAQ (Persily and Emmerich 2012). This is especially true for design measures implemented to save energy and other resources that have the potential to negatively impact IAQ as an unintended consequence of (e.g., building insulation materials that emit airborne pollutants). The potential for negative consequences may be greater when the goal is to achieve net-zero or very low energy use, e.g., when building envelopes are tightened without providing adequate ventilation.
Persily and Emmerich (2012) reviewed the manner in which several green and sustainable building programs, standards, and guidance documents address IAQ and concluded that a strong case exists for a more comprehensive and demanding approach to IAQ. One reason cited is the reliance on ASHRAE Standard 62.1 (ASHRAE 2016), which intentionally contains only minimum requirements for regulatory application and therefore leaves out considerations that advance IAQ beyond minimum performance. Some specific areas that a comprehensive, high-performance IAQ standard needs to address better than Standard 62.1 are moisture control, material emissions, air cleaning, and poor outdoor air quality, as well as the typical “silo” approach to building design, commissioning, and operations and maintenance practice (i.e., addressing different aspects of building performance separately).
Many green building certification programs and standards include an operations and maintenance component (Persily and Emmerich 2012). For example, ASHRAE (2014) Standard 189.1 requires the development of an operations plan that includes the operations requirements from Standard 62.1 plus outdoor air intake verification and biennial IAQ monitoring including contaminant concentration measurements, occupant surveys, or a complaint response program. The LEED v4 for Building Operations and Maintenance (USGBC 2016) is a separate rating certification program for building operations and maintenance that requires the development and verification of operations and maintenance plans covering a wide range of IAQ issues. Such plans typically are not developed for traditional buildings and can help achieve good IAQ.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Area Of Study
Wellspring University was founded by Management Science Centre, a Professional Training and Educational Consulting Firm established in 1983. the university is located at Benin Edo state.
Study Site
This study was carried out in Wellspring University, Benin City, Nigeria. Wellspringis a private tertiary institution, licenced and approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The institution is located in Benin City, Edo State, in the Southern region of Nigeria. Ten (10) sampling locations in the university were used in this study and they include Sickbay, Library, Administrative block, Male hostel, Female hostel, Lecture hall 1 and 2, Staff office, Canteen and Laboratory.
Population Of The Study
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out on microbiological assessment of indoor and outdoor air using Wellspring University as case study. The population 0f this study comprise of ten (10) selected locations in the university. The selected locations include; Sickbay, Library, Administrative block, Male hostel, Female hostel, Lecture hall 1 and 2, Staff office, Canteen and Laboratory.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULT AND ANALYSIS
Results below revealed the microbiological quality of the sampled indoor air from ten (10) different location sites in the study location. Tables 1 – 4 revealed the microbial load of the indoor air sampled while tables 5 and 6 showed the different microbial species of the sampled indoor air and their occurrence. Also, Figures 1 – 8 showed the percentage frequency of the microbial species as isolated from the indoor air sampled.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS
The study of airborne fungal spores is important to understand the dissemination, spread, and movement of the microbes, particularly the pathogenic ones in the atmosphere (Udochukwuet al., 2015). Thus, it can be posited from this investigation that occupants within the investigated enclosed environment are frequently been exposed to health hazards associated with Aspergillus infections. Therefore, students may suffer from (if not controlled) different respiratory diseases. Further studies will be necessary to determine which enclosed space within the school environment contributes a higher amount of a specific microbial species. On the other hand, Staphylococcus aureus recorded the highest percentage frequency (27%) of bacteria isolated while Sarretiamarcensces had the least percentage frequency (4%) of bacteria isolated.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the findings of this study, the researcher recommends that the school management should develop strategic measures which are applicable towards the control of airborne fungal spores and air pollution as this has been proven to have a health related in effects on occupants. More so, Sickbay, Library, Administrative block, hostels, Lecture halls, Staff offices, Canteens and Laboratories should be well fumigated against airborne fungal.
REFERENCES
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