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In factories where high-risk chemical pollutants are treated, it is essential to anticipate response measures in the event of chemical pollutant leakage to minimize adverse health effects on workers. When high-risk liquid chemical pollutants are assumed to be leaked inside enclosed spaces, it becomes crucial to predict the non-uniform concentration distributions in enclosed spaces and evaluate the health impacts and risks of short-time exposure to prevent large-scale accidents. Therefore, we have developed an emergency ventilation system for controlling the inhaled contaminant dose of factory workers. In this study, assuming a worst-case scenario liquid chemical pollutant leak in an enclosed factory space, the advantages and performance of a hybrid ventilation system that combines displacement and push–pull type ventilation systems were numerically investigated. Installation of wall materials that facilitate photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) reactions for background passive concentration control was also discussed. Based on the demonstrative numerical analyses for a realistic factory space, push–pull type ventilation system was confirmed to effectively suppress chemical pollutant diffusion in enclosed spaces with a low ventilation rate. Wall materials with the PCO mechanism had a certain contribution to the control of peak concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor air quality plays a significant role in human health, especially for those who spend the majority of their time indoors, as is the case of workers in the industrial field. The control of contaminants inside the occupational indoor environment becomes critically important for promoting health. In terms of Health Impact Assessment, indoor air quality inside a factory becomes an essential factor of industrial hygiene. Here, computational fluid dynamics-based indoor environmental design was applied to potentially evaluate the environmental quality in a factory and to improve industrial hygiene. In particular, this study proposes an integrated simulation procedure to predict the inhalation exposure concentration of a hazardous chemical compound (here, cyclohexanone) by using a multi-stage, one-way nesting method. This procedure connects a factory building space, a micro-climate around the human body, and a respiratory tract in the human body. This research provides quantitative and qualitative detailed information of contaminant dosing in workers. The exact inhalation dose of contaminants in the human airways can be estimated based on factory-environment conditions through this procedure. Subsequently, the average contaminant concentration in the work place and inside the human body can be calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]