VOC emissions from building materials are assumed to cause irritation of eye and the upper airways (sensory irritation, SI) in the indoor environment. Four finishing products, two PVC floorings and paints, were selected to this study: PVC(+) and Paint(+) were accepted whereas PVC(-) and Paint(-) were not acceptable in the human sensory evaluation. SI potency of VOC mixtures representing the material emissions were tested by the mouse bioassay (ASTM E981-84 ). Both the paint mixtures were much poorer irritants than PVC(-), but stronger than PVC(+).

On a morning of July 1999, the lawn of a rural medical facility was sprayed with an organophosphate (Chlorpyrifos) without any warning to staff and patients. Patients waiting to enter the building were exposed due to proximity of spraying and windy conditions. A physician walked through a cloud of spray. Details about the concentration of pesticide used were not available but use of a high concentration was probable. Exposure was suspected to have continued inside the building through opened windows, air exchanger, and people movements through the doors.

The cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted in spring 1998 among indoor workers of 6 buildings in town Tartu, Estonia. The goal of this pilot study was to evaluate magnitude of possible problems related to indoor air quality in Estonian nonindustrial workrooms as well as in those workers' dwellings. Therefore, the questionnaire included questions about perceived indoor environment for both workplaces and homes.

This paper describes synthetically the work carried out by the Polytechnic University of Turin within the CE-funded .Research project PRECiS, aimed at valuating the effect of urban form on heating and cooling energy saving potential. A sens1tlv1ty analysis based on the parameter urban wind pressure drag was performed using the thermal simulation program ESP-r. The methodology used and a first set of results are presented.

Passive cooling techniques driven purely by natural wind forces present a highly attractive environmental solution in the perspective of low energy architecture. The physics governing passive cooling are well understood and have been extensively discussed in the literature. Indeed the necessary design details that must be incorporated to achieve the full potential of the technique, such as exposed thermal massive and good internal and solar gain control, are also well understood.