Indoor air quality in elementary schools has been a subject of extreme importance due to susceptibility and sensibility of children to air pollutants. The schools were selected based on their surrounding environment especially downwind direction from the highly industrialized zone in Kuwait. Extensive sampling from different sites in four schools for comprehensive VOCs and CO were completed for an extended period of over a year. Different hot spots were identified where leaked refrigerant and inadequate handling of laboratory solvents contributed to the high VOCs in the respective locations. CO levels reflected HVAC performance and poor ventilation. A list of recommendations has been proposed to eradicate these high levels of air pollution.
Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) in Kuwait has ammonia urea industries, and there were complaints about ammonia and urea dust pollution. PIC has resolved this problem by replacing "melting and prilling unit" of final product urea prills by more environmentally friendly "granulation unit." Environmental Pollution and Climate Program has been assigned the duty of assessing the outcome of this change and how that influenced ammonia and urea dust emissions from the urea manufacturing plant.
The surrounding outdoor environment for new development has a big effect on the indoor quality of life. The main aim of this work was to determine the suitability of the area for building new schools with reference to electromagnetic field (EMF) effects. The specific objective of this study was to detect the safe distance from the EMF posed by the high-tension overhead power lines in the vicinity of the specified area. The measurements were taken for both the electric and magnetic fields in different months in order to detect the highest EMF levels during the peak power load season. EMDEX II with E-probe and EMDEX II with Linda were used for the measurements. These instruments were all calibrated by ENERTECH Company in USA. The EMF associated with high tension transmission lines that surrounded the proposed site has to be below 0.2 μT (Italian EMF regulations are the most suitable regulations for the establishment of schools in Kuwait). The safety clearance distance from the existing 300-kV high-tension power line has been assigned as 200 m and from other existing 132-kV high-tension power line was 50 m. The proposed site with its predefined boundaries has a magnetic field below the Italian EMF regulations for the establishment of new schools.
Kuwait is planning to install wind mills in its territorial waters in the Arabian Gulf. For optimal design of offshore wind mills and marine infrastructures, extreme wind and gust speed for different return periods, say 25 yr, 50 yr and 100 yr is an important input. Without such information, the design will be either very conservative and expensive or unsafe. A scientific estimate of the extreme wind and gust speed is hence obligatory. Recently Kuwait has approved a multi-billion dollar plan to develop Boubyan Island into a commercial seaport to serve as the main gateway for Kuwait, Iraq and the surrounding region. Kuwaiti government is also planning to develop Failaka Island as a tourist hub in this region. Knowledge of extreme wind and gust will be required for appropriate design of all marine infrastructures in these islands. The present work is carried out for nine marine locations in the territorial waters of Kuwait. Extreme 10 minute average wind and Gust speed from different directions and for different return periods were predicted for these nine locations. Measured wind speed by the climatological office of Directorate General of Civil Aviation is used for this analysis. The extreme wind speeds are predicted based on Gumbel distribution. Within these 9 locations, the 10 min. average 100 year wind speed in the marine area of Kuwait from different directions is in the range of 25.5 to 33.0 m/s. Without considering the effect of direction, it is in the range of 24.5 to 33.5 m/s. Similarly, the extreme gust speed for 100 year return period from different directions is in the range of 38.5 to 77.5 m/s. Without considering the effect of direction, it is in the range of 38.0 to 92.5 m/s.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.