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This study presents a health-centered approach to quantify and compare the chronic harm caused by indoor air contaminants using disability-adjusted life-year (DALY). The aim is to understand the chronic harm caused by airborne contaminants in dwellings and identify the most harmful. Epidemiological and toxicological evidence of population morbidity and mortality is used to determine harm intensities, a metric of chronic harm per unit of contaminant concentration. Uncertainty is evaluated in the concentrations of 45 indoor air contaminants commonly found in dwellings.

This work quantifies the chronic harm caused by long-term exposure to common indoor air contaminants in dwellings located in the global north. Two methods are used to compute DALYs. The first uses incidence data and the second considers toxicological evidence. They are synthesised to produce Harm Intensities, the number of DALYs per person per unit of annual-average concentration the person is exposed to.

The ASHRAE Standard Project Committee on Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings (62.2) has proposed an addendum to the standard that adds a harm-based Indoor Air Quality procedure as an alternative compliance method. The IAQ Procedure only considers 3 contaminants and only the sum of the harm from those three contaminants needs to be limited. This was determined by completing four stages of research.