Monitoring Chemical Contamination of Medical Air Using Low-Cost Sensors

Medical air is used in hospitals for patients suffering from a wide range of health problems. This air is typically produced by pressurizing outdoor air on-site and supplying it to patients through piping system. Thus, it may contain chemical pollution from outdoor sources or can be polluted because of technical problems in the production system. Hospitals in North America are mandated to meet the medical air quality standards established by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), yet medical air quality is often unmonitored. Thus, potentially failing to meet the patients' health requirements. In this study, concentration of CO, CO2, NOx, and O3, black carbon, and ultrafine particles in medical air were evaluated. Simultaneous measurements were made at the outdoor intake and patient-room ends of a medical air system at a Canadian hospital. The results showed a strong association between outdoor air pollution and the medical air quality based on correlation analysis.%%%%M.A.S.