Under the provisions of the Law for Maintenance of Sanitation in Buildings, the "Building Sanitation Control Standards" came into force subsequently. The air quality standard, one of these Standards, is composed of the following 6 items: Suspended particles, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity. Since the enactment of the law, we have surveyed actual conditions of indoor environment for these 13 years, and found the percentage of buildings which failed to come up to the standards.
Measurements were made in the PIKO low-rise pilot building project to study air tightness, interior air quality, and air heating in 15-30 residences in various seasons. Exterior wall air tightness was measured in 70 units and repeated in 10.
Notes the contaminants which may be contained in room air - radon, solvents, tobacco smoke, formaldehyde, dust mites etc. Points out that no definitive threshold values have been established for contaminants representing health hazards. Points out that the reactions of various individuals to them differ widely, determined by a number of factors.
Reviews current knowledge about the sources of a number of indoor pollutants and their concentrations: tobacco smoke, NO2, CO, radon, formaldehyde, SO2, CO2, O3, asbestos, mineral fibres, organics and allergens. Lists the adverse health effects from exposure to each of the pollutants. Finds instrumentation for measuring exposure acceptable, but monitoring and knowledge of distribution of sources and concentrations inadequate or marginal. Knowledge of exposure-effects relationship is inadequate, especially with regard to delayed effects of chronic exposures.
Long-term monitoring of radon, aerosol and carbon dioxide concentrations was carried out in two Finnish public buildings. In each case, a distinct periodic behaviour of pollutant concentrations was observed. CO2 and aerosol showed maxima during the working hours, but the fluctuations of the aerosol concentration were faster and more irregular. The radon concentration peaked at night and on weekends, dropping off rapidly in the working day mornings when ventilation was turned on.
As part of an investigation into the influence of a residential weatherization program on indoor air quality and energy efficiency, a multi-pollutant survey of the air inside 50 Wisconsin homes was conducted three times during the heating season
ASHRAE's first ventilation standard, published in 1973, has been used in many building codes in the USA. The 1981 revision of this standard has been criticised for its approach to indoor air quality. A comparison of the '73 and '81 standard, currently underway, is expected to better explain the rationale and provide new support for controversial parts of the standard.
Ventilation is widely used to help maintain acceptable indoor pollutant concentrations. In this paper, the relationships between ventilation rate and indoor concentration are examined by the use of mass balance models and measured data. It is shown that the pollutant source strength and pollutant removal by processes other than ventilation can have a large impact on the indoor concentration and that maintenance of a typical ventilation rate does not ensure an acceptable indoor concentration.
The paper proposes a methodology for evaluating and ranking specific alternatives for control of indoor air quality in existing buildings, based on comparative costs and benefits. The method avoids the difficulties of assigning a monetary value to a change in air quality by adjusting the air exchange rate in each alternative until equivalent indoor air quality is achieved. The difference in air exchange rates between alternatives allows calculation of energy savings, which can be compared to capital cost savings,which can be compared to capital cost using the payback period method.
When indoor air concentrations from indoor combustion processes are estimated, source strengths and ventilation rates are usually considered. Recent studies, conducted in the Energy Research House at Iowa State University, indicate that seve
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