Abstract

Grocery stores are primary establishments where people purchase food, supplies, and household items. Most stores are open daily, and some even for 24 hours. Customers enter Rodamel Grocery Store in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, during the operating hours to buy goods. To ensure public health safety, there is a need to measure/analyze the IAQ of the Rodamel Grocery Store and compare the gathered data to existing IAQ standards. For three consecutive days, air quality monitoring devices were used to measure the ventilation, temperature, humidity, also the concentrations of CO2, formaldehyde, and particulate matter such as PM2.5 and PM10. Bioaerosol samples were also collected and grown using a process called Growth Culture Analysis to qualitatively identify how much is inhaled depending on the grocery shopper’s exposure time. Based on the results, only the temperature and the humidity did not meet the acceptable ranges from the standards, exceeding the maximum of 27˚C and 60 respectively. For the bioaerosol sampling, all the 18 samples show a relationship that the longer the shopper stays inside the grocery store, the more bioaerosol exposure is experienced. Further recommendations are also given to the Rodamel Grocery Store to address their indoor air issues.