Monitoring of Fine Particle in a Hospital in Amnat Charoen Province

Abstract

The objective of this research and was to monitor concentration of particulate matter smaller than 10 micron (PM₁₀) in the area of Out Patient Departments 1 and 2 and Operating room of Amnatcharoen hospital, Amnatcharoen province, during each season. PM₁₀ concentrations were monitored for a period of 8 hours once a month for all monitoring points during March 2014 to March 2015. From the results, it was found that concentrations of PM₁₀ for each monitoring point and all season do not exceed the standard (5 mg/m³). The highest average concentrations of PM₁₀ for OPD1, OPD2 and Operating room were 0.02477±0.00214, 0.02298±0.00485 and 0.02131±0.001656 mg/m³, respectively. As compared the concentrations of three monitoring points, it was observed that the highest average concentrations of PM₁₀ were obtained at OPD1 While the highest average concentration of PM₁₀ from the three monitoring points was observed in winter due to relatively low relative humidity resulting in easy dispersion of dust in the atmosphere. In addition, numbers of patients during winter season were relatively large due to respiratory diseases. It is also one of sources of fine particles brought into the service areas of the Amnatcharoen hospital.

Although the concentrations of PM₁₀ do not exceed the standard, PM₁₀ concentrations should be further monitored to prevent adverse health effect that may cause.