Relative Humidity during Antenatal Classes—A Case Study †
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Presented at the Innovations-Sustainability-Modernity-Openness Conference (ISMO’19), Bialystok, Poland, 22–23 May 2019.
Proceedings 2019, 16(1), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019016043
Published: 17 July 2019
(This article belongs to the Proceedings of Innovations-Sustainability-Modernity-Openness Conference (ISMO’19))
Abstract
:The quality of air inside buildings is considered in terms of health and comfort of the occupants. The whole study included experimental research of selected parameters of indoor air in the room of the birth school located in Bialystok. This paper examines the effects of low relative humidity, during gym classes, while the air conditioning unit was working.
1. Introduction
Health care is an enormously important issue. These days, many people lead a healthy lifestyle, especially pregnant women. They sign up for birth schools, which have become very popular recently. In the majority of parenting schools, classes consist of a part of the lecture and a part devoted to physical exercises improving the condition of the future mother. The groups most sensitive to the indoor air quality (IAQ) are children, pregnant women, the elderly and sick people. According to ASHRAE standard, an adult needs air within 20 and 25 m3/h [1]. This amount should be higher for pregnant women due to their increased breathing capacity. Changes in respiratory function are designed to cover a greater demand for oxygen [2]. In the opinion of Śmiełowska et al. [3], a significant impact on the increase in the incidence of different types of civilization diseases is bad indoor air quality. Relative humidity (RH) is one of parameters that play a major role in ensuring thermal comfort. The aim of this paper is to present the results of RH of indoor air during gymnastic classes.
2. The Materials and Methods
In order to verify the range of the relative humidity, tests were conducted using the instrument TSI 9565 (Figure 1) 1.0 m above the floor.
Air quality tests were conducted in November 2018 during gymnastic classes, when the heating and air conditioning were working.
3. Results
Figure 2 shows the results of 3 series of measurements conducted for 60 minutes. The first 5 minutes after the instrument was turned on was excluded in order to stabilize measurements.
A noticeable difference in the relative humidity values was observed. All results oscillated to approximately 30%, which was well below the required minimum. The reason for such low values is the HVAC system operation.
4. Summary and Conclusions
Based on the results of the tests, it is recommended that changes be made in the main control panel of the air HVAC system, namely increasing the setpoint of relative humidity.
Author Contributions
D.A.K. and P.Z. conceived and designed the experiments; analyzed the data and made conclusions while P.Z. performed tests.
Acknowledgments
This scientific project was realized within the framework Project VIPSKILLS (Virtual and Intensive Course Developing Practical Skills of Future Engineers) Erasmus+ 2016-1-PL01-KA203-026152 and S/WBIŚ funds at Bialystok University of Technology from HE Ministry grant.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
References
- ASHRAE Standard 62-2001, Ventilation for acceptable Indoor Air Quality; ASHRAE: Atlanta, GA, USA, 2001.
- Rytlewski, K. Physiological maternal changes during pregnancy and their consequence in GP-practice. Prz. Lek. 2008, 65, 195–202. [Google Scholar]
- Śmiełowska, M.; Marć, M.; Zabiegała, B. Indoor air quality in public utility environments—A review. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. Int. 2017, 24, 11166–11176. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
Figure 1.
The location of the instrument TSI 9565 (own photography).
Figure 2.
The distribution of relative humidity in the tested room.
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
MDPI and ACS Style
Zielinko, P.; Krawczyk, D.A. Relative Humidity during Antenatal Classes—A Case Study. Proceedings 2019, 16, 43. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019016043
AMA Style
Zielinko P, Krawczyk DA. Relative Humidity during Antenatal Classes—A Case Study. Proceedings. 2019; 16(1):43. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019016043
Chicago/Turabian StyleZielinko, Paulina, and Dorota Anna Krawczyk. 2019. "Relative Humidity during Antenatal Classes—A Case Study" Proceedings 16, no. 1: 43. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019016043
