碩士 / 國立成功大學 / 環境醫學研究所 / 98 / Aromatherapy is a form of complementary medicine developed based on the historical experience of using essential oils, known to have anti-bacterial and sedative effects as well as maintaining work efficiency. While beneficial properties of using various essential oils have been claimed, few studies in literature have aimed to elucidate the potential health risks of essential oils. Studies have also shown that many volatile organic compounds from essential oils will react with various indoor oxidants to produce secondary pollutants like formaldehyde and ultra-fine particles; both are correlated with reporting adverse health effects. With a distinctive work pattern, the aromatherapists are exposed to high levels of various essential oils from work on a daily basis, and the often-small-in-size working environments with high air tightness are expected to result in accumulation of high VOCs concentrations emitted from the working materials which in turn tends to increase health risk of aromatherapists. This study therefore aimed to conduct an overall occupational health investigation on aromatherapy environments by using questionnaire survey and environmental measurements to (1) assess the potential health risk and the work pattern of aromatherapists, (2) assess other indoor air pollutants in workplace and their influence on levels of compounds emitted form essential oils, (3) compare the difference of pollutant removal rate between different ventilation systems.
The questionnaire survey data were analyzed by Multivariate Logistic Regress and adjusted for age, smoking, allergy history and store. For those aromatherapists with greater exposure index (working history×average number of customers served per day×average duration per therapy), a higher risk of reporting symptoms of eyesight system (OR=3.09), digestive system (OR=3.00) and skin system (OR=2.98) was found. Trend test showed that larger exposure index is likely to be associated with higher risk of reporting symptoms of eyesight, digestive and skin system, especially the dry eyes, the upper abdominal pain and the have an itch on skin.
The levels of TVOC and terpenes increased during the therapy time (Before therapy vs. therapy：TVOCs 505 vs. 659~781 ppb, Terpene 33~227 vs. 60~714 μg/m3 in C spa; TVOCs 209 vs. 245~251 ppb, Terpene 9~92 vs. 73~1727 μg/m3 in H spa). Even in the low ozone concentration environment (16-22 ppb), the levels of secondary products of terpenes/ozone reaction would also increase. The I/O ratio of formaldehyde and ultra-fine particles (diameter less than 100 nm) concentration increase during the therapy. Besides, this study verified that essential oils had an anti-bacteria effect, but the effect could only last for about 30 minutes.
The indoor air pollutant levels of the spa which had split air conditioner for ventilation were higher than the levels found in spa with AHU system, possibly due to its bringing in fresh air to dilute the indoor air pollutant levels. The space volumes of two spas were different by an average of about 4 times, and the pollutants levels appeared to correlate proportionately in an opposite direction.
In summary, this study has found that the aromatherapists with larger exposure index appeared to increase the health risk, especially in reporting eyesight and cardiovascular system problems. The levels of TVOC and terpenes rose during the therapy time. Even in the low ozone concentration environment (16-22 ppb), the levels of secondary products of terpenes/ozone reaction increase. The levels of indoor air pollutants were related to the ventilation volume. Future investigation should design to further analyze the dose-response relationship and human exposure, absorption, metabolism, and damage mechanisms.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TW/098NCKU5520087 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Te-JouTsai, 蔡德柔 |
| Contributors | Huey-Jen Su, 蘇慧貞 |
| Source Sets | National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan |
| Language | zh-TW |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Format | 100 |
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