Sick building syndrome has up until recently been diagnosed from complaints by the users of the building. Specific causes of complaints symptoms usually have not been identified. Inspection methods have been limited. Frequency of sick buil

Analysis of five papers given at the Symposium on Sick Buildings. Conclusions are that the cause of sick building syndrome must be psychosocial, physical, chemical or biological. Symptoms are different from symptoms of mass psychogenic illne

Methods of controlling indoor air pollution include control, air cleaning and dilution with uncontaminated air. Assessment of the amount of ventilation necessary depends on the extent of pollution, which has increased as new pollutants are identified and new materials are used. This has lead to thereexamination of ventilation standards and their underlying rationale.

Air pollution is not just a phenomenon associated with urbanization and industrialization. It is possible that the principal exposures to several important pollutants occur in rural areas of developing countries where the population relies on biomass fuels for their energy needs. These fuels have large emission factors for particulates, CO and a range of hydrocarbons. Rural studies have found very high BaP concentrations. Effects on health have not been researched, but can be assumed to be similar to urban occupational air pollution effects.

Indoor concentrations of a variety of particulate matter and gaseous compounds often exceed outdoor concentrations. We should examine exposures to air pollutants within the important built environments or perhaps on a personal basis. The development of reliable biological markers is still an area of active research. Instruments passively monitoring NO2 exposures over timeperiods ranging from hours to days have been used in several studies in theU.S.

Methods of monitoring passive smoking vary in accuracy and expense. Annoyance is easily identified among smokers and non-smokers alike. Sensory irritation does occur, but the threshold is difficult to establish. Infections in children appear to be generally correlated with mother's smoking and by amount of smoking per day. The effect on children's lung function growth has been established, but amount varies. Passive smoking has a blunting effect on response to other irritants and asthmatics are more susceptible than others.

Indoor radon concentrations are approximately lognormally distributed, with the range of concentrations varying from a one in one thousand risk of contracting lung cancer to high one per cent risk. Source strength rather than ventilation rate seems to be the major factor causing the broad distribution in concentrations. There is general agreement that the most important mechanism for radon entry into homes is not diffusion but pressure driven flow of soil gas that carries radon from the soil into the homes.

Summary of conference discussions on formaldehyde, including character- ization, sources, measurement techniques, health effects, mitigation techniques and conclusions: 1. Elevated formaldehyde concentrations, higher than 100 ppb, are measured in many indoor environments. Formaldehyde concentrations relate positively with temperature and decrease with the age of the source. 2. Urea formaldehyde bonded products can be improved to such a degree that indoor levels can be reduced to ambient levels if the materials are properly installed and used. 3.

Contains further papers, reports and conference summaries from the 3rd International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, 1984, as well as afull list of authors and titles of papers printed in this and the previous volumes.

R-2000 Homes have specific requirements for mechanical ventilation, usually incorporating heat recovery ventilators. Performance testing was carried out on 12 residential heat recovery ventilators in 1984, representing the range of equipment