title: Monitoring Indoor Air Quality for Enhanced Occupational Health.
abstract: Indoor environments are characterized by several pollutant sources. Because people spend more than 90% of their time in indoor environments, several studies have pointed out the impact of indoor air quality on the etiopathogenesis of a wide number of non-specific symptoms which characterizes the "Sick Building Syndrome", involving the skin, the upper and lower respiratory tract, the eyes and the nervous system, as well as many building related diseases. Thus, indoor air quality (IAQ) is recognized as an important factor to be controlled for the occupants' health and comfort. The majority of the monitoring systems presently available is very expensive and only allow to collect random samples. This work describes the system (iAQ), a low-cost indoor air quality monitoring wireless sensor network system, developed using Arduino, XBee modules and micro sensors, for storage and availability of monitoring data on a web portal in real time. Five micro sensors of environmental parameters (air temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and luminosity) were used. Other sensors can be added for monitoring specific pollutants. The results reveal that the system can provide an effective indoor air quality assessment to prevent exposure risk. In fact, the indoor air quality may be extremely different compared to what is expected for a quality living environment. Systems like this would have benefit as public health interventions to reduce the burden of symptoms and diseases related to "sick buildings".
authors.affiliation: Polytechnic Institute of Guarda - Research Unit for Inland Development, Av. Dr. Francisco Sá Carneiro, n° 50, 6300-559, Guarda, Portugal. rpitarma@ipg.pt.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9486-0631
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pitarma
authors.affiliation: Polytechnic Institute of Guarda - Research Unit for Inland Development, Av. Dr. Francisco Sá Carneiro, n° 50, 6300-559, Guarda, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gonçalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.affiliation: Coimbra Hospital and University Centre, Praceta Prof. Mota Pinto, 3000-075, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Bárbara Roque
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000032:analysis*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D016272:Occupational Health; D018877:Sick Building Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control; D013696:Temperature; D059015:Wireless Technology
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002248:Carbon Monoxide
keywords: Air quality monitoring; Gas sensors; Indoor air quality; Occupational health; Sick buildings; Wireless sensor network; ZigBee