Public space and air quality

In recent decades, people have spent most of the day indoors with little or no air exchange with the outside environment, increasing the use of air conditioning techniques in workplaces and homes, creating conditions that are potentially harmful to human health. Libraries are environments with a large circulation of people and a huge collection of books, with few studies on this subject. The library of the State University of Maringa was therefore selected as the setting for this study. The aim of this study was to observe indoor air quality and relate closed environments with natural ventilation and artificial ventilation by air conditioning equipment to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) by relating the possible symptoms presented by workers in the area, such as allergies, irritation and respiratory problems. The building studied has an area of 13,298.03 m (2) divided into a basement, first floor and two floors. The lower floor makes use of both natural ventilation through windows and a Split-type air conditioning system, while the second floor has only natural ventilation through windows.