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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 17
| Issue : 4 | Page : 1024 |
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Carbon dioxide level in ambient air in outpatient department area: A note from a study in a rural province hospital in Thailand
Pathum Sookaromdee1, Viroj Wiwanitkit2
1 TWS Medical Center, Bangkok, Thailand
2 Department of Community Medicine, Dr. DY Patil Vidhyapeeth, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Submission | 14-Aug-2019 |
| Date of Acceptance | 04-Feb-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 10-Feb-2023 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Pathum Sookaromdee
TWS Medical Center, Bangkok
Thailand
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jdmimsu.jdmimsu_123_19
How to cite this article:
Sookaromdee P, Wiwanitkit V. Carbon dioxide level in ambient air in outpatient department area: A note from a study in a rural province hospital in Thailand. J Datta Meghe Inst Med Sci Univ 2022;17:1024 |
Sir,
Carbon dioxide is a gas that can cause health problem.[1] The carbon dioxide can be generated by several sources including to the expiration.[2] In crowded area, the high carbon dioxide level in ambient air might be observable and this might result in respiratory problem of the people in that area. A hospital in developing country is usually a crowded place. The air pollutant in the hospital is an important problem but little mentioned in the literature.[3] The consideration on accumulated carbon dioxide levels in ambient air in the hospital is very interesting. In the present report, the authors discuss on data from a local environmental survey on carbon dioxide level in ambient air in outpatient department (OPD) area in a rural province hospital in Thailand. This hospital is namely Nongkhai hospital, which is a local province hospital in rural area of Thailand, a tropical country in Indochina. The area located 630 km from the capital, Bangkok. In this hospital, there are six main OPD serving more than 300 outpatients per day.
The ambient air collection in the official hour of OPD area was collected by the environmental medicine team in the hospital and the carbon dioxide level in ambient air was measured. The continuous monitoring was done during 2018. Of interest, all air sampling from the OPD area shows the extremely high carbon dioxide level exceeding the acceptable level (<1000 ppm). The average determined carbon dioxide level is equal to 1150 ppm. Of interest, the determined level can result in unwanted health effect. The respiratory problem of the patient receiving the service in the OPD area can be expected. The clean air and pollution control in the health service area is important and should not be overlooked. If there is air pollution at OPD, it can affect the patients visiting the hospital. Furthermore, it can superimpose and activate the respiratory problem of the patients.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Moustafa K. A clean environmental week: Let the nature breathe. Sci Total Environ 2017;598:639-46.  |
| 2. | Siobal MS. Monitoring exhaled carbon dioxide. Respir Care 2016;61:1397-416. |
| 3. | Lu CY, Kang SY, Liu SH, Mai CW, Tseng CH. Controlling indoor air pollution from moxibustion. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2016;13. pii: E612. |
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