Concerns toward Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in office building tend to risen since most people spend their working hours
indoors compare to outdoors. Exposure to indoor pollutants is a considerable problem. Therefore, there is a need to monitor IAQ in
order to deter further air quality deterioration in the workplace. The objective of this study is to determine the level of IAQ parameter
in selected academic office. The important IAQ parameters considered in this study were the air temperature, air velocity, relative
humidity, CO2, CO, TVOC, formaldehyde and respirable particulate matter. Measurements were conducted using commercial IAQ
instruments. From the study it was found that the levels of TVOC and respirable particulate matter were higher than the recommended
limit during photocopying activities. The formaldehyde, CO2 and CO level were observed to be acceptable for an office based on
Industry code of practice on indoor air quality (ICOP-IAQ 2010). Results shows that the temperature and air velocity are located at
acceptable value of 22-25 ºC and 0.1-0.1 m/s. Findings also show high relative humidity that exceeded the requirement level of 40%-
70%. Detail investigations are needed in order to provide certain guidance in improvement of IAQ conditions in office environment.
The aim of this paper is to share views on the Safety and Health Performance Indicators (SPIs) for the Small
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to assist SMEs in improving their business performance, growth and resilience through
effective Safety and Health Performance Management framework. Traditionally, industries are relying on the “lagging”
indicators of safety and health performance. Lagging indicators are limited due to the reactive approach and to some
extent, they create complacency among the industries which do not have any accidents or to the SMEs which face
low risks at work. As a result to their limitation, there has been a move in using “leading” indicators in measuring
safety and health performance in the industries. SMEs are important to Malaysia. However their contribution to the
workplace accident statistics is equally substantial. They are the major contributors to 80% of the total accidents.
Hence, effective Safety and Health Performance Indicators is indeed crucial to assist SMEs in measuring their safety
performance to enable them to move forward in achieving safety culture which is good for their business to stay strong
and resilient in this new business millennium.
The question about which is the best approach to facilitate the effective safety evaluation, training processes
involved have become and on-going debate. This article reviews current approaches to evaluation of safety training. It
was focusing theoretical framework suggested and used in the previous literature. Furthermore, possible summary of
several methodologies of safety training evaluation presented.
The indoor air contaminations in the buildings are normally contributed by causes from humans, animals and air
borne fungi. These factors greatly cause the problem of sick building syndrome and indoor air pollutant. This study
was undertaken to discover the potential efficiency of biocide potassium sorbate to remediate the indoor air fungal
especially on wood material. Samples of fungal were collected according to NIOSH Method (NMAM 0800). The total
amount of fungi and bacteria were enumerated at 806 cfu/m3 and 280 cfu/m3, respectively in a lecturer’s room. The
study also revealed that the growth of fungi was at the minimum when incorporated with a biocide treatment according
to ASTM D559000 standard. This biocide has been proven to be effective and able to reduce the growth rate of indoor
fungi. Overall results showed that this type of biocide is effective to overcome the fungal problem on wood material
in the buildings.
This study has been conducted in a new constructed building of NIOSH Malaysia located at Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor. The goal of the case study is focusing on the level of Indoor Air Contaminants (IAC) including chemical contaminants within three consequent stages which are before furniture install, after furniture install and during one month occupancy. This study was divided the sampling area into two main facilities which are training and office setting. The contaminants has been measured consist of sixparameters such as Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC), Formaldehyde, Respirable Particulates (PM10) and Ozone. The result of Carbon Monoxide (CO), Total Volatile Organic Compound (TVOC), Respirable Particulates (PM10) and Ozone show an increasing trend across the three sampling stages. The Formaldehyde show an increasing trend in the first and second stages but were reduced significantly the last stage of sampling. These finding indicates that furniture and fittings installed might be a potential sources of indoor air contaminants. The management should be aware to their indoor air status to protect the occupant from the risk of unwanted exposure especially during the early stage of building occupancy.
A preliminary study has been conducted in a new constructed 8 stories building (2 level of Hostels facility, 3 level of Training Room, 2 Level of Offices and 1 level of Exhibition Halls and Rooms) in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor. The Hostels facility is a floor tile and furnished with build in locker and use split air conditioning system while the Training Room and Exhibition Rooms used floor tile. The Offices and Exhibition Hall are carpeted furnished. All these spaces were using centralized air conditioning systems. A pre-commissioning assessment on 5 chemical parameters of indoor air pollutants such Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC), Formaldehyde, Respirable Particulates (PM!
Engineering control is a method of controlling the risk of exposure to contaminants. Health effects to industrial workers are more severe whilst high exposure and time exposed to contaminants at workplace. Installation of industrial ventilation or local exhaust ventilation (LEV) system is the proposed method to reduce the risk. This paper discusses the past, present and future relating to LEV system in Malaysia. Current issues related to monitoring reported by Hygiene Technician in compliance with Occupational Safety and Health (Use of Standard Chemical Hazardous to Health Regulation 2000) carried out in several states in Malaysia as a sample. The nanotechnology is a new area at present and future. The involvement of government, employers and employees need to be justified due to the attention to prevent and control of any exposure. It is suggested that using the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation, a new design of LEV system can be upgraded and predicted.
Occupational safety and health (OSH) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have not received the proper
attention not only in Malaysia, but also in most countries all over the world, in terms of research or support for
implementation. In Malaysia, many agencies such as the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH),
Social Safety Organization (SOCSO), National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and many more
agencies related to OSH have been in collaborations to conduct and promote a safety working environment and to
protect human rights economically, morally and legally. This research mainly focuses on the implementation of the
occupational safety and health in small and medium industries in the southern region of peninsular of Malaysia. This
exploratory study will be based on conducting a survey to 500 SMEs owners and workers throughout the southern
region of Malaysia to get the in-depth knowledge on how the implementation of safety and health management system
in the SMEs will affect them both morally and economically. A site visit will also be conducted in order to enhance
and to get to know the real situation happening in the real working environment. The results of this study will be used
to make and initial evaluation of the implementations of OSH management system in SMEs and hopefully will help
for future interventions and researches.
Occupational safety and health (OSH) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have not received the proper
attention not only in Malaysia, but in most of the countries globally, in terms of research or support for implementation.
This research focuses on the implementation of the occupational safety and health in small and medium industries in
the southern region of peninsular of Malaysia. The objective of this research is to determine the level of awareness of
SME owners and also their employers towards the importance of implementing OSH in their daily tasks. This study
will be based on conducting a survey to 200 SMEs owners and workers throughout the southern region of Malaysia.
The results from this research can be use as a benchmark for other researchers to further enhance the research in this
area.
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is a subset of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), where IAQ is about what we
breath. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can cause health problems to the residents. Air conditions in the shelter must
be preserved, in order to ensure the safety and health of the residents. Certain indoor plants can filter out toxin found
in the air. Other than that, indoor plants can help clean the air. In this study, seven types of indoor plants that can live
in equatorial climate like Malaysian environment will be selected. At the initial stage, planting of all types of indoor
plants will be done, from sowing seed until all plants grow up. In the next stage, all plants will be tested to determine
their effectiveness to improve indoor air quality. The comparison of data before and after installation of indoor plants
is made. To gain the benefits of indoor plants, detailed study should be done in terms of response and monitoring of
indoor air. The reason of this study is to provide benefits to building occupants. Besides, having the interior plants as
part of decoration items may improve workers’ productivity and reduce stress.
Indoor pollution increasingly becomes a public concern. These concerns are related to energy efficiency in a
building. There are various ways in which it can ensure energy conservation can be achieved, including superinsulation
and reduced fresh air exchange. As a result, indoor air becomes stagnant and odours, thereafter contaminants of air will
accumulate and will certainly disrupt human health. It is quite difficult to make people comfortable in a building with
consumption of energy-saving and human health guaranteed. Indoor plants are one of the alternative solutions that
have been studied since the last three decades. This paper intends to review the abilities of indoor plants to purify air,
and the ways used by previous researchers to prove that indoor plants can treat the air. In general, it can be stated that
indoor plants are able to absorb various types of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). An advantage of indoor plants
to cure air from carcinogen gas is greatly needed for human health. Therefore, studies on indoor plants to neutralize
the air are gaining attention. Enclosed space or chamber is often used by researchers to test the ability of indoor plants
absorb gaseous toxins in their study; because it is easy to handle and can quickly determine the absorption rate. In the
other hand, environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and light are important to be taken into consideration
during the study. As a conclusion, it can be stated that the existence of indoor plants in a building is very reasonable,
because it can give positive impacts on human health and the total energy consumption.
The cultivation of indoor plants in indoor environment has become a topic of interest among researchers worldwide for its
potential to improve indoor air quality (IAQ). However, the adaptations of environmental factor of each plant need to be investigated
to correspond with the native environment. The study investigate the capability of plants selected to live indoor. Before experiment was
conducted, all plants selected were assimilated with indoor environment for two months. Photosynthesis proses in this experiment will
be a guidance to determine the comparative for every plant. The portable photosynthesis system equipment (LI-COR 6400) was used to
determine the level of photosynthesis rate for each of plants. Accordingly, among of all plants tested, Spider Plant showed less effective
to be grown with indoor environment by the rate of photosynthesis value up to -0.15. Moreover, light compensation point (LCP) of
Spider Plant also indicated the light intensity consumption was 2960 lux which is extremely higher than 300 lux. As a conclusion, only
six plants in this study which are Anthurium, Dumb Cane, Golden Pothos, Kadaka Fern, Prayer Plant, and Syngonium are able to
survive with indoor environment. In the next stage of study, this six plants may give good results to enhance the IAQ.
Indoor air pollution is rapidly becoming a major health issue worldwide. The quality of indoor air inside building
is important not only for occupants’ comfort but also for their health. Although researches are still under way to
better define the nature and extent of the health implications for the general population, recent studies have shown
significant amounts of harmful pollutants in the indoor environment. Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) has been tied to
symptoms like headaches, fatigue, trouble concentrating and irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. In this study,
occupants’ comfort satisfaction on IAQ of a museum building environment in a tropical climate will be studied. IAQ
aspects which will be considered as parameters are chemical contaminants, gaseous pollutant and comfort factors
(temperature, humidity and air movement). Museum, archives, library, heritage building and gallery are the types of
buildings that can be considered as heritage building environment. At the initial stage, a pilot study will be conducted
to identify the current IAQ conditions inside those selected buildings.
An awareness of possible risk factor in pesticides, by changing attitude towards the correct technique during spraying and
changing behavior can increase safety of workers safety as well as performance. However, there is a limited study and not highlighted
deeply in knowledge, attitude and practices of workers in palm oil plantation issue. Therefore , the objective of this paper is to identify
the relationship between knowledge, attitude and practices of pesticides among the plantation workers. The quantitative method were
used in this paper whereby 132 respondents as pesticide sprayer which represent 90% of the population of palm oil workers in Johor.
The result of spearman correlation indicates that there is significant relationship between knowledge and practices. It shows the
common pattern of high knowledge resulting high practices of the workers during spraying the pesticides at plantation. There is no
relationship between knowledge and attitude and between attitude and practice of the workers at the workplace. This paper shows that
knowledge need to be strengthen in agricultural communities of Johor in order to reduce health problem and sosial issue statistic and
prevent for any future accident. Human exposure to pesticides is an important health and sosial issue as it usually results in serious
health problems such as stroke, epilepsy, respiratory disorders and cancer. Death has been known to occur in some places as a result
of exposures to pesticides. Therefore, more impact knowledge-focused programs need to be arranged and implemented to inculcate
the better awareness of pesticides among palm oil workers, as without knowledge, people may become less careful and therefore are
exposed to pesticide poisoning and other long term exposure illness in the future.
In this research, the biodiesel from WCO is used in order to reduce the exhaust emission and to investigate the
community perception regarding to the human health. Biodiesel production is conducted using trans-esterification
process with holding time of 2 hours, temperature of 60 oC and conventional frequency of 20 kHz and then followed
by washing process with holding time of 1 hours, temperature of 50 oC and the frequency of 5 kHz. Biodiesel can
reduce exhaust emission of NOx up to 55%, NO gas up to 57%, increase CO gas up to 25% and increase CO2 gas up
to 43.18% as compared to diesel fuel. In addition, biodiesel is achieve good responds from 35 respondents about the
biodiesel importance.
Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) is required to absorbed the chemical and at the same time to maintain the air quality. This
study is purposed to create new design of LEV system that believe can remove air contaminants in the chemical store buildings. This
research was conducted using two (2) types of LEV system which are 4 air-inlets LEV (type 1) and 3 air-inlets LEV (type 2). That LEV
has been simulated using ANSYS FLUENT software for their air flow performances. LEV material and the cost of production were
considered parameter for fabricating and effectiveness of LEV system. Results show that air velocity in LEV type 1 was gradually
uniform throughout its ducting network but it increased at the 90º bend section with a maximum air velocity of 31.054 m/s. In the LEV
type 2, the air flow simulations depicted uniformity velocity values of 8.12 m/s, 8.58 m/s and 7.69 m/s at every inlet respectively. The
finding suggests that LEV type 2 was more efficient compared to LEV type 1 due to increasing streamline air velocity.
Brake pad apparatus is designed for help student and instructor in teaching and learning application. The objective
of this research is to differentiate the pressure effect and braking temperature condition of different pad. This apparatus
also aimed for learning the safety car and motorcycle braking system. This apparatus can to compare with theoretical
calculation in order to approve that this apparatus is useful. The main concept in this apparatus is thermocouple use
to detect the temperature gain while braking process. Speed motor controller used for set the angular velocity of the
motor in braking process. Pressure applied at brake pedal detected by pressure gauge and data logger function as a
connector. This apparatus also designed based on valid data for average of teenager in Malaysia which made on a
sample university student. Result show that the apparatus can function effectively by defines the different temperature
when applied the different pressure and different pad. Pad C shows the 880C for thermocouple 1 and 790C for
thermocouple 2 at the 20 psi and infrared thermometer show 1130C for pad C. Graph from calculation shows that the
pad A have 216.480C at 1000 rpm which have low temperature than pad B, C and D. high efficiency of friction and
pressure applied will cause more heat generate than low coefficient of friction and pressure applied.
The simulation of the catalytic converter system is quite needed in order to characterize the catalyst and also
optimizing the monolithic design for the gas emission in the catalytic converter and other related mechanism. The
objective of this study is to obtain quantitative description of the gas emission in the catalytic converter system of
natural powered automobile exhaust gas using ANSYS Software. This work will present a finite element calculation
to predict and evaluate the mass transfer, energy balance and velocity of gas emission in the catalytic converter. The
expected result for this research is to evaluate data of the gas emission obtained from the software to be compared with
the manual experiment in order to verify the effectiveness of modified catalytic converter.
Flood warning is designed to protect community from loss of life and their important goods. The objective of
this research is to design the flood warning system using mobile application that able to give warning and sign to
the mapping. With mobile application concept we can deliver warning faster which is to community smart phone
that nowadays majority of them used it. Department of Irrigation and Drainage have built the system that able to
detect the rising of water and have delivered the data to the department. The mobile application will get the data
directly from server Department of Irrigation and Drainage and distribute to all community. Not just give warning
but also able to give sign to the mapping such as GPS and Waze. Red color is danger, Yellow color will consider as
warning and green will consider as alert. It is expected that better warning process to community in Malaysia’s in
order to promote protection through legislation. The development of mobile application will fulfill the needs of the
public, representative of employee, or governmental official to protect community during flooding. Moreover, with
this mobile application that cheaper cost and easy to use to the community, it will help government to reduce the cost
while flooding. With the ability able to give early warning, give information and educated people, it will make people
more alert and get enough information of flooding.
Automobile exhaust emission control is one of the trending issues in automobile research field. It caused by high
pollution such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and hydrocarbons (HC) distributed by automobile
especially form diesel engine. These pollutants give a harmful effect to the environment and human health. Therefore,
this paper proposed in reviewing methods on fabrication of modified catalytic converter. FeCrAl is used as substrate
which treated using ultrasonic bath technique which could improve the exhaust emission control. This metallic catalytic converter used as the replacement of precious metal that have high production cost.