THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

THE ROLE OF MICROCLIMATE IN THE FORMATION OF INDOOR AIR POLLUTION

ABSTRACT
Indoor air quality plays a key role in assessing people's quality of life, as a large proportion of people spend up to 22 hours a day indoors and people are exposed to indoor air almost all day long [1]. People in developed countries spend much more time indoors. Recently, employers are paying more and more attention to ensuring the well-being of employees, as it affects the quality and productivity of their work [2, 3]. Ensuring an appropriate working environment on the part of employers ensures both sustainable social and economic links. Well-being can be affected by various parameters of the indoor environment, in addition to the microclimate, they can be: lighting, noise level, and various odors. However, one of the primary indicators of comfort or discomfort in an indoor environment is thermal comfort or discomfort [4]. Gas stations were chosen as place for measurements because they are considered dangerous for several reasons: gas station territory is potentially hazardous with a high environmental risk and explosion hazard. Working shifts and nights is also considered undesirable for human health as it disrupts the biological rhythms in the human body [5]. In such circumstances, the indoor microclimate and air parameters play a very important role, as spending long hours in inappropriate microclimatic conditions is likely to lead to various long-term health problems for the workers.
KEYWORDS
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2022-02-15
PAPER REVISED: 2022-12-29
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2023-01-05
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2023-05-13
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI220215105K
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2023, VOLUME 27, ISSUE No. 3, PAGES [2297 - 2307]
REFERENCES
[1] Pitarma, R., et al., Monitoring Indoor Air Quality for Enhanced Occupational Health, Journal of Medical Systems, 23 (2017), 41, 10.1007/s10916-016-0667-2
[2] Andrejiova, M., et al., Assessment of The Microclimate in The Work Environment, in: International Scientific Book (Ed. B. Katalinic), DAAAM International Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2012, pp. 509-516, 10.2507/daaam.scibook.2012.42
[3] Indoor Air Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency, [www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality](https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality, 10.1016/b978-0-12-409548-9.10198-8
[4] Flimel, M., Duplakova, D., New approaches of heat fluxes determination in the workplace in situ. Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, 61 (2018), 6, pp. 49-55, 10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2018.03.007
[5] Costa, G., The impact of shift and night work on health, Applied Ergonomics, 27 (1996), 1, 9-16., 10.1016/0003-6870(95)00047-x
[6] Phillips, J., L. et al., Relationships between indoor and outdoor air quality in four naturally ventilated offices in the United Kingdom, Atmospheric Environment. Part A. General Topics, 27 (1993), 11, pp. 1743-1753, 10.1016/0960-1686(93)90238-t
[7] Turlajs, J., Atlas of Geography of Latvia, Map publishing house Jāņa Sēta, Riga, Latvia, 2009
[8] Freijer, J., I., Bloeman, J., Modeling Relationships between Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 50 (2011), 2, pp. 292-300, 10.1080/10473289.2000.10464007
[9] Norhidayah, A., et al., Indoor Air Quality and Sick Building Syndrome in Three Selected Buildings, Procedia Engineering, 53 (2013), 1, pp. 93-98, 10.1016/j.proeng.2013.02.014
[10] Asare, L., et al., Assessment of Energy Efficiency Measures on Indoor Air Quality and Microclimate in Buildings of Liepaja Municipality, Energy Procedia, 95 (2016), pp. 37-42, 10.1016/j.egypro.2016.09.009
[11] Singh, J., Impact of indoor air pollution on health, comfort and productivity of the occupants. Aerobiologia, 12 (1996), 1, pp. 121-127, 10.1007/bf02248136
[12] Landrigan, P., J., Air pollution and health. The Lancet Public Health, 2 (2017), 1, pp. 4-5, 10.1016/s2468-2667(16)30023-8
[13] Tomei, F., et al., Blood pressure in indoor and outdoor workers. Environmental Toxicology an Pharmacology, 55 (2017), pp. 127-136, 10.1016/j.etap.2017.06.022
[14] Asumadu - Sakyi, A., et al., The relationship between indoor and outdoor temperature in warm and cool seasons in houses in Brisbane, Australia. Energy and Buildings (2019), pp. 127-142, 10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.03.010
[15] Al Horr, Y., et al., Occupant productivity and indoor environment quality: A case of GSAS. International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, 6 (2017), pp. 476-490, 10.1016/j.ijsbe.2017.11.001
[16] Szurek, A., et al., Determination of thermal preferences based on event analysis, Energy and Buildings, 166 (2018), pp. 210-219, 10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.02.014
[17] Jones, B., Molina, C., Indoor Air Quality, Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies, 2017, pp. 197-207
[18] Pope, C, A., et al., Review of Epidemiological Evidence of Health Effects of Particulate Air Pollution. Inhalation Toxical, 7 (1995), 1, pp. 1-18, 10.3109/08958379509014267
[19] Li, N., et al., Particulate Air Pollutants and Asthma: A Paradigm for the Role of Oxidative Stress in PM-Induced Adverse Health Effects, Clin Immunol, 109 (2003), 3, pp. 250-265, 10.1016/j.clim.2003.08.006
[20] Cezar-Vaz, M., R., et al., Risk Perception and Occupational Accidents: A Study of Gas Station Workers in Southern Brazil, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9 (2012), 7, pp. 2362-2377, 10.3390/ijerph9072362
[21] Klepis, N., E., et al., The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): a resource for assessing exposure to environmental pollutants, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, 11 (2001), 3, pp. 231-252, 10.1038/sj.jea.7500165
[22] Wallace, L., et al., Contribution of Gas and Electric Stoves to Residential Ultrafine Particle Concentrations between 2 and 64 Nm: Size Distributions and Emission and Coagulation Rates. Environ. Sci. Technol. 42 (2008), 23, pp. 8641-8647, 10.1021/es801402v
[23] Wallace, L. Indoor Sources of Ultrafine and Accumulation Mode Particles: Size Distributions, Size-Resolved Concentrations, and Source Strengths, Aerosol Sci. Technol., 40 (200), 5, pp. 348--360, 10.1080/02786820600612250
[24] Uhde, E.; Salthammer, T. Impact of Reaction Products from Building Materials and Furnishings on Indoor Air Quality - A Review of Recent Advances in Indoor Chemistry. Atmos. Environ, 41 (2007), 15, pp. 3111--3128, 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.05.082
[25] Chaiklieng, S., et al., Assessment of Benzene Exposures in the Working Environment at Gasoline Stations, Environment Asia, 8 (2015), 2, pp. 56-62
[26] Ryden, L., et al., Air Pollution: The causes - role of fuels and combustion, Environmental Science, Uppsala, The Baltic University Press (2003), pp. 329 - 330
[27] Smith, B., Pollution from Gas Stations. Sciencing (2017), [sciencing.com/pollution-gas-stations-18064.html](https://sciencing.com/pollution-gas-stations-18064.html
[28] Tie, X., Cao, J., Aerosol pollution in China: Present and future impact on environment, Particuology, 7 (2009), 6, pp. 426-431, 10.1016/j.partic.2009.09.003
[29] Alves, C., et al., Fine Particulate Matter and Gaseous Compounds in Kitchens and Outdoor Air of Different Dwellings, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17 (2020), 14, pp. 5256, 10.3390/ijerph17145256
[30] Tiachao, H., et al., Compilation of Published PM2.5 Emission Rates for Cooking, Candles and Incense for Use in Modeling of Exposures in Residences, Report No. LBNL-5890E, Berkeley, Canada, 2012

© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence