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The effects of dust exposure in buildings and its health and comfort consequences continue to concern occupants, particularly those who spend most of their time indoors. This study examines the influence of building opening characteristics on surface dust loading in indoor environments to determine the dust particles' impact on different opening configurations.

Indoor Harmattan dust surface loading data were collected from Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria, using model rooms with six different window configurations. A simple mathematical relationship was employed to assess surface dust loading characteristics in the model rooms. The study measured dust thrice between December and February for three days (72 h). The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

The results determined the highest average surface dust loading of 12.03 g/m2 in the room with awning windows at an indoor-to-outdoor (I/O) ratio of 0.7. In contrast, the experiment in the room with a closed window recorded the lowest average surface dust loading of 5.24 g/m2 at an I/O ratio of 0.30, which is infiltration. The outcomes further indicate that the average surface dust loading varies with the building opening type and position, as higher surface dust loadings were recorded in locations closer to the openings (doors and windows), reaffirming that the dominant source of the dust particles is outdoors. According to the study, dust incursion due to infiltration accounts for 30% of the outdoor surface loading.

Thus, Harmattan dust is a serious challenge to the health, productivity and hygiene of building occupants in the study area. The built-environment professionals must use the study's outcome to optimize building openings' designs (shape, size and form) for effective indoor dust control.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychosocial perception of harmattan dust on building openings, health and housekeeping to determine the influence of the dust on building occupants.

Population-representative survey data were collected from Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria, through physical administration of questionnaires by assessing several variables. Statistical package SPSS 16.0 was used for the data analysis, which is mainly descriptive analysis in frequencies, percentages and means together with a repeated Pearson’s chi-square analysis to identify the relationship between the factors and the significance testing.

The results show that majority (94.3%) experienced dust problem in harmattan season, and a larger part (76.6%) confirmed that the dust penetrates through doors and windows. Higher percentage (91.2%) noticed that the dust particles on their floor/furniture surfaces, and on an average, people clean their houses three times daily in harmattan season. Majority (80.5%) of the respondents smell dust in the harmattan season, and greater part (77.9%) experienced health challenges in this season, of which 12.8% confirmed harmattan dust aggravates their asthma, 13.6% confirmed it causes headache, 3.1% confirmed it exacerbated pneumonia, 58.5% confirmed it causes coughing, 3.5% confirmed catarrh, 2.3% confirmed nasal/respiratory congestion, sneezing and bronchitis and 6.2% experienced eye problems. Moreover, the results indicate that number/types of openings in a building are significantly associated with factors including smelling dust in the harmattan season and health problem experienced because of dust indoors. The number of times people clean their homes/workplaces is significantly related to important variables such as experiencing dust problem in harmattan season and number/type of openings in a building. The results further established that the health problem experienced by people is significantly related to important variables including dust problem experienced in the harmattan season and type of openings in a room.

Harmattan dust is a serious challenge to health and well-being of building occupants in the study area. The built environment professionals need to optimize building openings for effective dust control indoors.