A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF VENTILATION RATES ON THE PERCEPTIONS, SBS SYMPTOMS AND CONCENTRATION OF ASTHMATIC AND HEALTHY PEOPLE

Abstract

Ventilation rates is a key aspect of providing for a comfortable and safe indoor environment, which indirectly affects productivity at the workplace. Extensive studies have been done to explore the effects of ventilation rates on the typical (healthy) office worker, but in the process of doing so, the needs of another fraction of the workforce has been neglected. There is a pressing need to look into how differently mildly asthmatic people in the workforce are affected by a change in ventilation rates, compared to a healthy office worker. Time of exposure is also studied in relation to how it affects the extent of effects brought about by a change of ventilation rates. This dissertation attempts to examine the impact of ventilation rates on the perceptions, Sick Building Syndrome symptoms and concentration of healthy and asthmatic people through a blind intervention study, comprising of 2 separate groups of subjects. Subjective, in the form of a survey questionnaire, and objective, in the form of performance tests, assessments were administered in a controlled Field Environmental Chamber. Findings indicate that: 1) the subjects perform better at a higher ventilation rate; 2) asthmatic people reported a greater improvement in scores than their healthy counterparts when ventilation rate is increased; and 3) effects of ventilation rate became more pronounced with respect to prolonged time of exposure. The recognition of a difference in requirements between healthy and asthmatic people allows for the latter’s needs to be provided for at the workplace. Future research involving a larger sample size and/or another type of sensitive group is recommended.