Indoor air quality varies with ventilation types and working areas in hospitals

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the distributions of indoor air pollutants in different areas of hospitals, and examine how they might be associated with various types of air conditioning systems. We measured CO, CO 2 , O 3 , TVOC, HCHO, PM 2.5 , PM 10 , airborne bacteria and fungus at 96 sites in 7 different work areas under 4 major types of air conditioning systems from 37 hospitals, randomly selected throughout Taiwan. Statistical analysis showed that there were higher levels of CO 2 and TVOC in wards ( p 3 , HCHO, PM 2.5 , PM 10 , bacteria and fungi did not differ statistically among various work areas. The CO level was particularly higher at the hospitals with mechanical air-conditioning systems, regardless of whether the hospitals used an air handling unit (AHU) system, fan coil unit (FCU) system or mixed type ( p 2.5 , PM 10 and fungal concentrations were higher at the hospitals with non-central air conditioning systems ( p