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Reducing nosocomial transmission within health care facilities is important, but the number of negative-pressure airborne infection isolation rooms for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is limited. It is a daunting challenge to cope with a surge of suspected infectious patients in hospitals. We installed air exhaust fans on the windows to change the pressure direction within the wards rapidly. The best location for the fans was 90 cm from the floor and 90 cm from the edge of bed whether the indoor air conditioners were on or off. The noise level should be <60 dB(A) as per government regulations. General wards can be transformed into makeshift negative-pressure rooms easily and effectively within 24 hours, which is really the simple, fast, and effective way for the transformation being applied.

RFID technology, an automatic identification and data capture technology to provide identification, tracing, security and so on, was widely applied to healthcare industry in these years. Employing HEPA ventilation system in hospital is a way to ensure healthful indoor air quality to protect patients and healthcare workers against hospital-acquired infections. However, the system consumes lots of electricity which cost a lot. This study aims to apply the RFID technology to offer a unique medical staff and patient identification, and reacting HEPA air ventilation system in order to reduce the cost, save energy and prevent the prevalence of hospital-acquired infection. The system, reacting HEPA air ventilation system, contains RFID tags (for medical staffs and patients), sensor, and reacting system which receives the information regarding the number of medical staff and the status of the surgery, and controls the air volume of the HEPA air ventilation system accordingly. A pilot program was carried out in a unit of operation rooms of a medical center with 1,500 beds located in central Taiwan from Jan to Aug 2010. The results found the air ventilation system was able to function much more efficiently with less energy consumed. Furthermore, the indoor air quality could still keep qualified and hospital-acquired infection or other occupational diseases could be prevented.

Unlabelled: This study investigated the passenger exposure to particulate matter (PM) in long-distance buses in Taiwan. PM and CO(2) were measured in thirty buses traveling between Taipei and Tainan. The results indicated that average in-cabin PM levels were below the guidelines or standards suggested by Taiwan and other countries. Cigarette smoking revealed no effect on in-cabin PM2.5 level. However, since only one cigarette was lit per journey, the effect might be different if more cigarettes were lit in bus cabins. Opening windows was found to affect in-cabin PM2.5 and PM2.5/PM10 ratios may be elevated. Moreover, the PM10 level from air monitoring stations did not reflect the true passenger exposure to PM10. This study concludes that PM levels in long-distance buses is lower than those in other studies of urban buses, as a result of faster driving speed, non-stop driving pattern, and highway surroundings. Keeping windows closed on long-distance buses can minimize passenger exposure to PM2.5. Conversely, high in-cabin CO(2) levels may occur if opening window is minimized when air change rate is low. This study suggests that long-distance buses should increase their air exchange rates to reduce CO(2) levels and install particle filters with high removal efficiency to lower in-cabin PM levels., Practical Implications: The PM levels in the long-distance buses running on highways are lower than those observed in city buses. Opening window in the long-distance buses would result in higher in-cabin PM levels but may effectively reduce in-cabin CO(2) levels, which accumulate over the journey of long hours. Increase of air exchange rate and installation of filters with high PM removal efficiency in ventilation system are suggested to improve air quality in the cabin of long-distance buses.

Divergence in the acceptability to people in different regions of naturally ventilated thermal environments raises a concern over the extent to which the ASHRAE Standard 55 may be applied as a universal criterion of thermal comfort. In this study, the ASHRAE 55 adaptive model of thermal comfort was investigated for its applicability to a hot and humid climate through a long-term field survey performed in central Taiwan among local students attending 14 elementary and high schools during September to January. Adaptive behaviors, thermal neutrality, and thermal comfort zones are explored. A probit analysis of thermal acceptability responses from students was performed in place of the conventional linear regression of thermal sensation votes against operative temperature to investigate the limits of comfort zones for 90% and 80% acceptability; the corresponding comfort zones were found to occur at 20.1-28.4 degrees C and 17.6-30.0 degrees C, respectively. In comparison with the yearly comfort zones recommended by the adaptive model for naturally ventilated spaces in the ASHRAE Standard 55, those observed in this study differ in the lower limit for 80% acceptability, with the observed level being 1.7 degrees C lower than the ASHRAE-recommended value. These findings can be generalized to the population of school children, thus providing information that can supplement ASHRAE Standard 55 in evaluating the thermal performance of naturally ventilated school buildings, particularly in hot-humid areas such as Taiwan.

Control of low-concentration pollutants from a semiconductor process vent stream using a wet-scrubbing technique is a challenging task to meet Taiwan environmental emission standards. An efficient wet-scrubber is designed on a pilot scale and tested to control low concentration acid and base waste-gas emission. The scrubber system consisted of two columns, i.e., a fine spray column [cutoff diameter (based on volume), Dv(50) = 15.63 microm; Sauter mean diameter (SMD) = 7.62 microm], which is especially efficient for NH3 removal as the pH of the spraying liquid is approximately 7 followed by a packed column with a scrubbing liquid pH approximately 9.0 mainly for acids removal. It is observed that use of the surfactants in low concentration about 10(-4) M and 10(-7) M in the spray liquid and in the scrubbing liquid, respectively, remarkably enhances the removal efficiency of the system. A traditional packed column (without the spray column and the surfactant) showed that the removal efficiencies of NH3, HF, and HCl for the inlet concentration range 0.2 to 3 ppm were (n = 5) 22.6+/-3.4%, 43.4+/-5.5%, and 40.4+/-7.4%, respectively. The overall efficiencies of the proposed system (the spray column and the packed column) in the presence of the surfactant in the spray liquid and in the scrubbing liquid forthese three species were found to increase significantly (n = 5) from 60.3+/-3.6 to 82.8+/-6.8%, 59.1+/-2.7 to 83.4+/-4.2%, and 56.2+/-7.3 to 81.0+/-6.7%, respectively. In this work, development of charge on the gas-liquid interface due to the surfactants has been measured and discussed. It is concluded that the presence of charge on the gas-liquid interface is the responsible factor for enhancement of the removal efficiency (mass-transfer in liquid phase). The effects of the type of surfactants, their chain length, concentration in liquid, etc. on the removal efficiency are discussed. Since the pilot tests were performed under the operating conditions similar to most of the wet-scrubbers operated in semiconductors manufacturing facilities for inorganic pollutants, this study can be applied to modify the existing wet-scrubbers to enhance the removal efficiencies, especially for low-concentration pollutants.

The evaluation of contaminant removal effectiveness can play a key role in a working environment quality investigation and in remediation efforts. In this study a computer simulation technique was developed for assessing the efficiency of contaminant removal within a partitioned working environment. To determine the effect of the physical parameters of each partitioned space on contaminant removal effectiveness, a relative contaminant concentration unit was used to show the simulation results. In addition, tracer gas techniques were adopted to validate the accuracy of the prediction model. A comparison of measured CO2 concentrations in a controlled environment chamber with the results of a simulation model is presented. This study investigated the partition configuration of work environment and environment parameters including openings operation, constant concentration, and exhaust air volume mode. Results indicated that variations of the above three parameters can produce great differences in overall ventilation performance. Through this type of study, the interaction of airflow and contaminant concentration between partitioned spaces can be understood in advance and adequate knowledge can be provided to maintain a high-quality and healthy environment for workers.