Indoor air quality evaluation of two museums in a subtropical climate conditions

Indoor air quality can affect and influence the state of works of art exhibited inside museums. Museums, usually suffer badly from the generally higher levels of air pollution and the control of such contamination requires continual evaluation and the strict monitoring, using by using the most appropriate materials. The main aim of this paper was to characterize, analyze and determine indoor air pollutants in Cypriot-Archeological and Byzantine museum. Experimental measurements have been carried out concerning the measurements of CO, CO2, PM1, PM2.5, PM7, PM10, Relative Humidity (RH), O-3, NO, NO2, SO2, Benzene (BEN), Tulane (TOL), Ethylene (ETH), Xylene (XYL), NH3, H2S, for a period of 12 months. Considering the safety of exhibits in both museums and from the final results, the quality of air unfortunately cannot be described as satisfactory. The findings from this study are useful to policy makers in order to develop a new strategy plan for indoor air quality and especially for museums. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.