1. An Assessment of Indoor Air Quality in the Arrivals Hall of Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport: Monitoring of VOCs and NO2
- Author
-
Céline Liaud, Stéphane Le Calvé, Rouba Nasreddine, Jocelyne Adjizian Gerard, Tharwat Mokalled, Maher Abboud, Institut de chimie et procédés pour l'énergie, l'environnement et la santé (ICPEES), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Matériaux et nanosciences d'Alsace (FMNGE), Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Strasbourg (France), French CNRS, and ICPEES in Strasbourg, Campus France, and the Research Council at USJ (Lebanon)
- Subjects
Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Beirut ,Indoor air ,010501 environmental sciences ,Environmental Science (miscellaneous) ,lcsh:QC851-999 ,01 natural sciences ,International airport ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Human health ,heavy alkanes ,Indoor air quality ,[CHIM.ANAL]Chemical Sciences/Analytical chemistry ,airport ,Nitrogen dioxide ,nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) ,Air quality index ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean, Atmosphere ,volatile organic compounds (VOCs) ,indoor air pollution ,[SDE.IE]Environmental Sciences/Environmental Engineering ,Environmental engineering ,chemistry ,13. Climate action ,Environmental science ,lcsh:Meteorology. Climatology ,Contaminated air ,nitrogen dioxide (NO2) - Abstract
In Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport (RHIA), airport employees stay at least 12 hours inside the airport’s buildings and suffer from respiratory symptoms. Additionally, direct openings exist between the apron and the arrivals hall providing a pathway for contaminated air to enter the buildings. Hence, we study the impact of Beirut–RHIA’s activities on the indoor air of the arrivals hall (impact on employees and passengers) during June, November, and October 2014. Due to their impacts on air quality and human health, assessing of the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was the target of our study by using gas chromatographic techniques (GC-MS and GC-FID) for VOCs and calorimetric methods for NO2 concentrations. NO2 levels indicated a probable hazard to the health of passengers and employees, while measured VOC levels did not present any risks except for acrolein. This is the first study to assess the speciation of a large number of VOCs (46 VOCs) for airport indoor air while revealing a very interesting correlation between aircraft number and the concentrations of VOC groups (namely heavy alkanes, aldehydes and ketones, and monoaromatics). Moreover, this is the first study in Lebanon to assess the speciation of a large number of VOCs in indoor air.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF