Building Pathology, Investigation of Sick Buildings — VOC Emissions

Abstract

The design and management of the indoor environments of buildings should foster ‘‘health and wellbeing’’. Buildings affect the health of occupants in many ways, for example, through building related illnesses, sick building syndrome and allergy, and environmental health problems. The principal causes of sick buildings in the majority of cases are related to microbial effects and emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde from building materials or products used in buildings. Lighting and inadequate ventilation, particularly in airtight buildings are also important factors. New and refurbished buildings where there has been inappropriate use of materials could lead to high indoor concentrations of VOCs and formaldehyde, odours, and adverse effects on occupants. Indoor air quality management and investigation of sick buildings are complex issues, requiring multidisciplinary investigations and environmental monitoring. This paper considers the requirements for investigation of sick buildings with a particular focus on emissions of VOCs and formaldehyde in indoor environments, including examples of the causes and odour effects. Some guidelines for assessment of exposure risks are also included.

A Health Performance and Cost Optimization Model for Sustainable Healthy Buildings

“…Health factors are sub-divided into evaluation factor studies (Lee et al, 2012a). For instance, the health factor of indoor air quality, is subdivided into evaluation factors, including volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, carbon dioxide concentration and so on (Lai et al, 2009;Yu and Kim, 2010). In other words, the health performance of a project could be defined as the total sum of health factors for all of the evaluation factors.…”

A Lifecycle Health Performance Tree for Sustainable Healthy Buildings

“…For example, Loftness et al carried out a study on elements that contribute to healthy building design [4] and Dili et al researched traditional and modern architecture [3]. Yu and Kim conducted a study on the health performance of specific areas, including the air and light quality [5], while Bluyssen et al researched methods to reduce the impact of construction projects on the IAQ [6]. Khoder et al studied the loading rate of dust, Pb, Cd and Ni, and the mass concentration of metals in settled surface dust in domestic houses [7].…”

“…Therefore, the evaluation method should be flexible to encompass consideration of all factors, including occupants' age, period of stay and activities in the space. However, works conducted up to now, including design or case studies on healthy buildings [3,4], health performance of specific factors such as air quality and light quality [5][6][7][8][9], health-related factors or evaluation items of buildings [1,4], and building configuration factors [10,11], which do not provide the criteria for an overall health performance evaluation.…”

Adsorption Kinetics and Breakthrough of Carbon Dioxide for the Chemical Modified Activated Carbon Filter Used in the Building

“…Nowadays, buildings are being constructed with significantly stricter leak tightness requirements, as demanded by Building Regulations. There is increasing concern regarding emissions of CO 2 and the impact on health and well-being [2][3][4] and comfort [5,6] of occupants in air-tight housing. CO 2 is the representative pollutant of indoor air quality and its concentration is associated with human activity of about 650-700 ppm [7,8].…”