Risk Assessment of Indoor Air Quality and Its Association with Subjective Symptoms among Office Workers in Korea

Dayoung Jung, Youngtae Choe, Jihun Shin, Eunche Kim, Gihong Min, Dongjun Kim, Mansu Cho, Chaekwan Lee, Kilyong Choi, Byung Lyul Woo and Wonho Yang
Additional contact information
Dayoung Jung: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea
Youngtae Choe: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea
Jihun Shin: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea
Eunche Kim: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea
Gihong Min: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea
Dongjun Kim: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea
Mansu Cho: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea
Chaekwan Lee: Institute of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Medical School, Inje University, Busan 47392, Korea
Kilyong Choi: Department of Environmental Energy Engineering, Anyang University, Anyang 14028, Korea
Byung Lyul Woo: Industrial Hygiene, Preventive Medicine, Force Health Protection, U. S. Army Medical Department Activity-Korea/65th Medical Brigade, Unit # 15281, APO (Army Post Office) AP (Armed Force Pacific) 96271-5281, USA
Wonho Yang: Department of Occupational Health, Daegu Catholic University, Gyeongsan 42472, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: The 2014 Time-Use Survey of Statistics Korea revealed that office workers are increasingly spending more than eight hours at work. This study conducted an exposure assessment for office workers in Korea. Indoor and outdoor air pollutants were measured in offices. A self-administered questionnaire was employed to determine work information, indoor air quality (IAQ) awareness, and subjective symptoms for 328 workers. Indoor air concentrations for measured air pollutants were below IAQ guideline values. The average concentrations of target air pollutants did not show significant differences except for benzene, which had relatively a higher concentration in national industrial complexes. The indoor benzene, ethylbenzene, and acetaldehyde concentrations were higher in offices where workers were having dry eye, ophthalmitis, and headache symptoms. This study provides reference values to manage IAQ in offices, suggesting that if the benzene concentration exceeds 4.23 μg/m 3 in offices, it could cause dry eye symptoms. Considering the increasing working hours for office workers and health effects, workers’ exposure to indoor pollutants should be reduced. In addition, the IAQ was heavily influenced by outdoor air levels and various indoor sources. Therefore, in areas with relatively high air pollution, greater monitoring and management is required considering the influence of outdoor air quality.

Keywords: indoor air quality; office workers; risk assessment; health effects; subjective symptoms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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