Investigation of Indoor Air Quality in a Hospital: A Case Study from Şanlıurfa, Turkey

Most people spent more than %80 of their time indoors. In Turkey, hospitals are prominent governmental places. Its importance becomes from more visits than others. An investigation about the interior air quality across the polyclinics of one of the most visited hospital of Şanlıurfa, Turkey, was conducted in this study. Indoor air quality in terms of PM, CO, CO2, temperature and relative humidity was investigated. The performed measurements were revealed that the levels of PM2.5 and PM10 in surgery, urology, neurology, heart surgeon and eye diseases polyclinic were higher than the threshold limits in international standards set by WHO and ASHAE. CO2, a surrogate for indoor pollutants emitted by humans. In this research, CO2 was found to be under the standards in radiology, tomography, X-ray, orthopedics polyclinics and emergency services. Conversely, it was measured above the standards across the other polyclinics. Temperature and relative humidity were found unsuitable; CO was found to meet the standards. The significantly high rates were considered as a result of inadequate ventilation, lack of proper cleaning, low ceiling and crowd of patients. The old age of the building could create risk of dust particles, CO2, temperature, humidity in the hospital for the health of the staff and patients visiting the polyclinics.