Development of indoor work environmental air quality index for a dyeing and printing industry

Due to various components, materials, and processes, industrial indoor air quality differs from building indoor air. Air quality and the working environment impact health, performance, and comfort. This study developed an Indoor Work Environmental Air Quality Index (IWEAQI) to assess and characterize industrial work environments.

Surat “Textile city” is situated in the western partof India in Gujarat state. The small-scale dyeing and printing industry has been selected as a study area. The industry locations like Jet dyeing machine area, stenter machine area, printing machine area, looping machine area and washing basin area has been selected. Various chemicals, adhesives, solvents, dyes, and varied temperature and humidity conditions are used to transform the raw cloth into the finished product. CO, CO2, SO2, NO2, O3, Total Volatile Organic compounds (TVOC), Formaldehyde, Particulate Matters (PM10, PM2.5), WBGT index, humidity, noise, and light were considered to construct IWEAQI. Continuous observations were recorded at minute intervals with a real-time monitoring system. To account for all contributing aspects, United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) air quality index technique was updated for index formulation. IWEAQI was validated using
the Pollution Index approach.

The proposed approach calculated IWEAQI from results. Both approaches gave an index value of 46-80. The developed approach and pollution index method were compared using regression analysis. All study locations had regression values between 0.93 and 0.99.

The technique classifies IWEAQI as excellent (0-20), good (21-40), moderate (41-60), poor (61-80), and very poor (81-100). From the developed index value, which parameters are influencing the most can be judged.