Indoor air quality requirements for healthy office buildings: recommendations based on an epidemiologic study.

The article presents IAQ requirements for healthy office buildings in Nordic climates, based on the results of an epidemiological study of a multistorey office building in Helsinki, Finland. Summarizes the results of the study and gives recommendations and their limitations. Lists the indoor air quality requirements made for healthy office buildings as follows: recommended room temperature is 21 +/- 2 deg C; individual control of the room temperature is desirable; relative humidity should exceed 20% in all conditions; the minimum airflow rate for good ventilation is 10 L/s per person; windows should be openable to give extra individual control of the environment and involuntary exposure to environmental tobacco smoke should be avoided.