Studies on the indoor air quality of Pharmaceutical Laboratories in Malaysia

This study was conducted to determine the comfort conditions of Pharmaceutical Laboratories in Malaysia. Four laboratories were selected as investigation sites. The Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system of the laboratories must be designed for providing good indoor air quality (IAQ) to the workers in the laboratory and keeping the expensive equipment in good condition. For the investigations, a number of measurement equipments were used to obtain the IAQ data of the laboratories (i.e. dry bulb temperature, air humidity, air flow velocity, carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, etc.). Some random subjective assessments on the workers in the laboratories were made to acquire information on the workers such as their thermal comfort rating, activity level and their clothing conditions. In this study, air temperature for Laboratories 1, 3 and 4, are 22.38, 20.53 and 19.50 °C, respectively, slightly below the ASHRAE recommended air temperature. Besides, the total volatile organic compound (TVOC) for Laboratories 2 and 3 shows high TVOC concentration in the wash room and chemical room, which are 22.8 and 6.5 ppm, respectively. The study in terms of thermal satisfaction indicates an average performance of the air-conditioning system exists in the Pharmaceutical Laboratories.