A measurement procedure to assess indoor environment quality for hypermarket workers Sabrina Della Crociata, Francesco Martellotta, Antonio Simone * Dipartimento di Architettura e Urbanistica, Politecnico di Bari, via Orabona 4, I-70125 Bari, Italy article info Article history: Received 13 April 2011 Received in revised form 11 July 2011 Accepted 12 July 2011 Keywords: Thermal comfort Acoustic comfort Visual comfort IAQ Hypermarkets abstract The paper discusses the suitability of an on-site measurement procedure to assess indoor environment quality for hypermarket workers. The method is based on the collection of both objective measurements of environmental parameters and subjective perceptions of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) as well as thermal, acoustic, and visual comfort. Given the particular (and variable) indoor conditions observed in hyper- markets, a preliminary field study was carried out to verify the understanding of the questions and their effectiveness in describing subjects’ perceptions and the suitably of the survey method to assess indoor environmental quality and comfort. A hypermarket located in Southern Italy was selected as a pilot study during which the exposure data and subjective responses of employees were acquired simultaneously through physical measurements and questionnaires. A major aspect that required to be verified was the use of fixed positions to avoid, as far as possible, any interference with workers’ activities. In fact, workers were asked to move to the measuring point and fill in a questionnaire to rate their subjective percep- tions. Measuring points were chosen to represent the typical conditions inside the hypermarket. However, in a few cases more extreme conditions (less representative of the average conditions) were selected in order to widen the range of the measured parameters and subjective reactions. Data collected at fixed point locations showed only minor (and predictable) biases due to expectation and to transition through different thermal environments, confirming that the proposed method is effective in this kind of environment and minimizes interference with working activities. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The concept of “health”, according to the WHO, is the result of psycho-physical and social well being, rather than simply “lack of illness”. It is extended to include global comfort, which depends on several factors such as the thermal environment, indoor air quality, visual and acoustic conditions, and is not easy to characterize. Since the 1970s several studies have been carried out to understand comfort conditions in indoor environments. Thermal comfort in residential and office buildings received the greatest attention after the seminal studies by Fanger [1] that led to widespread literature on this subject [2e4] and to many national and international standards [5,6]. However, new research trends suggested the inclusion of expectation and adaptation in the general framework [7e9], as well as the use of different prediction models. Similarly, many Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) studies have been carried out with reference to office buildings also investigating possible relations with thermal comfort [10,11]. A lot of research has been carried out to study disturbance due to office noise [12e15] and, a smaller number, to study visual comfort and its relation with working activities [16]. Possible interactions between all the above comfort aspects have been studied [17e19], but evidence of possible correlations is little and, in any cases, seems to suggest a major contribution from thermal aspects to the global perception of the environment. All the above mentioned literature is mostly focused on office buildings, while only a little research concerns large-scale retail trade buildings [20e22]. These buildings include supermarkets, hypermarkets, department stores and shopping malls in ascending order of complexity and dimension. They are characterized by a huge range of products, from groceries to electrical appliances and furniture, and their environment is not homogeneous, but consists of several spaces with different thermal, acoustic and visual conditions which have to be studied individually. The spread of hypermarkets at the expense of small trade retailing means that greater attention must be paid towards the assessment of comfort conditions in these commercial buildings both for customers and staff. In fact, fixed workplaces for the staff, and longer stays for the * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 080 5963631; fax: þ39 080 5963419. E-mail address: antosimone@gmail.com (A. Simone). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Building and Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv 0360-1323/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2011.07.011 Building and Environment 47 (2012) 288e299