Characterization of PM2.5 and Indoor-Outdoor (I/O) Ratio in the Indoor Office Connected to the Chemical Production Plant in Gebeng Industrial Zone, Pahang Malaysia

This study aims to characterize PM2.5 in terms of mass concentration, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and elementals concentrations bound to PM2.5, and to determine indoor and outdoor (I/O) ratio of PM2.5 in the office which is connected to the chemical production plant. The samples were taken for every 8 hours during working days at five sampling points (outdoor environment, production plant, and indoor office). The samples were analysed by using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry and Gas Chromatography- Flame Ionization Detector to determine the elementals and PAHs bound to PM2.5, respectively. The results indicated that the mass concentrations of PAHs and elementals (were below the recommended values of World Health Organisation. However, Si was found to be the most abundant element and PM2.5 were noncompliant with the Permissible Exposure Limit. The I/O relationships for office and production plant revealed that the source of pollutants are mainly contributed by the outdoor sources.publishedVersio

Characterization of Fungi at Daycare Centers: A Systematic Review

Exposure to indoor airborne fungi may cause the occupant to get allergy reactions and asthma symptoms. Children may be more susceptible to the adverse effects of airborne fungi than adults due to their age and vulnerability. This study systematically reviews the characterization of fungi and the parameter affecting the characteristic of fungi at daycare centers. This systematic literature review used PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematics Review and Meta-Analyses). All the articles related to the characterization of fungi at daycare centers published from 2011 to 2021 were analyzed and reviewed from an electronic database such as Google Scholar, Science Direct, Scopus, Taylor & Francis and SpringerLink. In this systematic review, fifteen studies that complied with the inclusion and exclusion criteria were chosen for the review. The median value of indoor fungi concentration from included studies was 317.25 CFU/m³ and ranged from 3.4 CFU/m³ (in Khorramabad, Iran, in July) to 47 581 CFU/m³ (in Taiwan). The findings indicate that Penicillium, Cladosporium, and Aspergillus are typically observed in daycare facilities. This review aims to present a thorough overview of the current understanding of the characterization of fungi at daycare centers and help researchers determine their focus areas when conducting studies in this field

Influence of natural smoke vent opening in stairway of multistorey building

Stairway used as an escape as well as firefighter's route during evacuation. In addition, stairway connecting different floors of a building and becomes a path for the smoke spread in fire event. In a building, every escape route should be installed with smoke control system to ensure the prevention of dangerous smoke accumulation at those areas. The fire perimeter in terms of heat output and smoke generation is highly depends on building occupancy and the efficacy of smoke confinement may have a great challenge. In this paper, numerical simulations were conducted to study the efficacy of natural smoke vent to confine fire-induced smoke transportation in the stairways of multi-storeys buildings. The simulation used Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) was conducted on a full-scale building where the influences of smoke vent opening at different fire size were discussed. When the value of heat release rate (HRR) were kept constant, the different vent's size opening had a different influence on the efficacy of smoke vent and an appropriate opening size was obtained and proposed for further action. The finding of this study can assist the fire engineer to ensure that the smoke vent installation play a good role in confinement of smoke diffusion

A review of different methods for prediction of smoke conditions in buildings

In order to study the nature of smoke in compartment, a few methods had been developed and proposed in previous studies. This paper provides a review of various methods in the area of quantitative fire risk assessment (QRA) and its application to predict a smoke layer height and temperature of the fire compartment in consequences analysis. Considering full-size experiment with real people and assets is impracticable, there are other methods that could be used to assess the severity of fire events including; historical data, disasters and near misses, experiments and fire tests, and modeling. The advantages and drawbacks of each method were discussed in this paper as a reference among researchers. Most of the methods are time consuming and expensive which requires skillful operator and may not be repeated. Nevertheless, smoke conditions could be quantified using mathematical modeling which is more timesaving especially when assessing multiple fire scenarios in fire safety design. However, existing mathematical model only applicable for single compartment and there are only a few models that has been developed from previous scholars for smoke prediction in multi-compartment and multi-story building. Finally this review conclude a necessity of developing a new simplified mathematical correlation model for smoke prediction in multi-story building to assist fire safety engineer explored different methods for the risk reduction as well as fire prevention

Analysis of road accident fatality in malaysia: body part injury

Over the decade, the number of road crashes in Malaysia has kept increasing whilst the number of fatalities has not experienced any dramatic increase, hovering over 6,700 cases yearly. Speeding while driving, fatigue, and reckless driving are the causes of car accidents in Malaysia. The fatality rate of car accidents in this country is high as cars are a means of family transport. This becomes a challenge for this country to reduce the likelihood of road deaths and injuries due to reliance on these vehicles. Moreover, the causes of death in relation to bodily injuries are vaguely discussed. This hampers the vehicles safety programme initiatives meant to prevent accident fatalities. One of the established road safety programmes that highlights the above issue is ASEAN New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) for verifying compliance with vehicle standards by implementing the NCAP star rating for Malaysian-produced cars. Accordingly, this study was commissioned to evaluate body regions that are the most vulnerable in frontal and/or side collisions. Results showed that head, neck, and chest are the most severely-affected body regions in frontal collisions. As for side collisions, chest is leading the overall results. In line with NCAP, all the above body regions are covered under Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) domain with three main assessments: Offset Frontal Test (OFT); Side Impact Test (SIT); and Head Protection Technology (HPT). Based on the findings, ASEAN NCAP star rating program could ensure manufacturing of safer cars, suitable to current need

indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and Related Risk Factors for Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) at the Office and Home: A Systematic Review

The comfort and productivity of workers may be affected differently by the indoor air quality (IAQ) and related risk factors at the office and at home. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) is one of the health issues usually faced by workers. SBS is generally associated with the time spent in a building, IAQ, and other related risk factors. The study reviewed papers published in journal articles and conferences regarding IAQ, environmental risk factors and SBS in the last ten years. The review employed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 items from two significant databases, Scopus and Web of Science. The review steps involved identification, screening, eligibility, data extraction and analysis. The study found that air quality in a building significantly influences work productivity and may contribute to SBS. Findings show that SBS symptoms are linked to various personal characteristics, sociodemographic, working environment and IAQ factors. The physical contaminants, chemical contaminants and ventilation rate have established relations with SBS symptoms. These findings can help to form interventions aiming to improve IAQ and the productivity of occupants

Development of a smoke prediction model for stairways in a multi-storey building

Multi-storey building in Malaysia has rapid growth rate especially in urban area with high population. During emergency in building fire, smoke could disturb people’s health and vision thus affects the evacuation time. Simple and transparent engineering methods can create opportunities to better understand a complex fire phenomenon and estimate the answer quickly before making decision. Existing methods of calculation can only predict smoke temperature in a single fire compartment and there was a lack of calculation method for multi-storey compartment. The main goal of this study is to develop a new and validated simplified mathematical model to predict the smoke conditions in a multi-storey building specifically in a stairway which used as the only route for rescue and evacuation when fire happens. In this thesis, an experimental setup consisting one fire room adjacent to the vertical shaft fire scenario were simulated using Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) version 6.1. Eight (8) independent variable parameters were tested including heat release rate (HRR), enclosure geometry as well as venting opening size to measure the smoke temperature which considered as dependent variable. Three hundred sixty (360) different simulations which study smoke conditions in a room adjacent to a vertical shaft were utilized in statistical analysis to find a constant in mathematical correlation. In order to predict the smoke temperature in a stairway, additional heat loss to the tread boards and landing were also included in developed correlation while calculating. The validity of the mathematical correlation was studied by comparing results from the correlation with numerical simulation and full-scale test data from previous published cases. The predictions with developed correlation were within 32% from the simulation and less than 23% for an experimental full-scale result. Error up to 35% in prediction of smoke temperatures by using developed correlation were accepted and considered good as reported in previous validated work conducted by Nuclear Research Centre (NRC). Sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate the most affected variables from the correlation model that would impact the smoke temperature in the stairway of multi- storey buildings. From the analysis, it was discovered that vent opening is the most sensitive variables that will affect the smoke temperature in a stairway beside other parameters such as stair and room area, heat release rate and door opening. In conclusion, the derived equation can be used to perform simple calculation for smoke layer temperature in stairway and it is a promising for a faster calculation especially when assessing multiple fire scenarios in a fire safety design. However, further validation studies of the developed model are recommended to be compare with other types of correlation developed from previous researchers

Aktiviti berbasikal sihat atau mudarat

Wabak pandemik Covid-19 memberi impak yang amat besar kepada seluruh dunia dengan kehadiran virus yang pertama kali dikesan berasal daripada pasar eksotik dalam bandar Wuhan, daerah Hubei di China. Bermula jangkitan pertama yang direkodkan pada Disember 2019, sehingga 4 Februari 2021, jangkitan telah mencecah sehingga 104,869,092 kes di seluruh dunia

Characterization of PM2.5 and Indoor-Outdoor (I/O) Ratio in the Indoor Office Connected to the Chemical Production Plant in Gebeng Industrial Zone, Pahang Malaysia

This study aims to characterize PM2.5 in terms of mass concentration, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and elementals concentrations bound to PM2.5, and to determine indoor and outdoor (I/O) ratio of PM2.5 in the office which is connected to the chemical production plant. The samples were taken for every 8 hours during working days at five sampling points (outdoor environment, production plant, and indoor office). The samples were analysed by using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry and Gas Chromatography- Flame Ionization Detector to determine the elementals and PAHs bound to PM2.5, respectively. The results indicated that the mass concentrations of PAHs and elementals (were below the recommended values of World Health Organisation. However, Si was found to be the most abundant element and PM2.5 were noncompliant with the Permissible Exposure Limit. The I/O relationships for office and production plant revealed that the source of pollutants are mainly contributed by the outdoor sources

Evaluation of Adult Occupant Protection on Body Region using Analytical Hierarchy Process: Side Impact Test

ASEAN NCAP is a well-known automobile safety rating program in evaluating new cars for performance against various safety threats on the road. For the Southeast Asian countries, Adult Occupant Protection (AOP), Child Occupant Protection (COP) and Safety Assist Technology (SAT) are domains used in the ASEAN NCAP assessment. In a recent rating protocol, the AOP domain contributes 50 percent of the overall rating system with a maximum 36 points from three main elements consisting of Offset Frontal Test (OFT), Side Impact Test (SIT) and Head Protection Technology (HPT). Frontal crashes resulted in a severe injury that comes from contact with frontal components and ejection; however, side crashes are also reported to have high rates of serious injury and fatality as compared to other crash types. However, in the ASEAN NCAP assessment programme, to what extent side impact test helps to reduce the severity of injury to the car driver and passenger when the collision happened need to be explored. Therefore, the injury of body region on the side impact due to AOP failure were evaluated and reported in this paper to strengthen this program where the recommendation for performing side impact test could be proposed to ensure successful performance. The elements on the side impact test were extracted and decomposed from the existing structure. Next, input from the expert panels of various related backgrounds regarding the injury of body region on side impact test was gathered and evaluated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The result shows that the head, neck, and chest have the highest rank, followed by an abdomen with a Consistency Ratio (CR) of 0.0079. The finding of this paper will help to evaluate the existing side impact test in the AOP assessment