Indoor gaseous air pollutants determinants in office buildings—The OFFICAIR project

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify determinants of aldehyde and volatile organic compound (VOC) indoor air concentrations in a sample of more than 140 office rooms, in the framework of the European OFFICAIR research project. A large field campaign was performed, which included (a) the air sampling of aldehydes and VOCs in 37 newly built or recently retrofitted office buildings across 8 European countries in summer and winter and (b) the collection of information on building and offices’ characteristics using checklists. Linear mixed models for repeated measurements were applied to identify the main factors affecting the measured concentrations of selected indoor air pollutants (IAPs). Several associations between aldehydes and VOCs concentrations and buildings’ structural characteristic or occupants’ activity patterns were identified. The aldehyde and VOC determinants in office buildings include building and furnishing materials, indoor climate characteristics (room temperature and relative humidity), the use of consumer products (eg, cleaning and personal care products, office equipment), as well as the presence of outdoor sources in the proximity of the buildings (ie, vehicular traffic). Results also showed that determinants of indoor air concentrations varied considerably among different type of pollutants.

Association of subjective health symptoms with indoor air quality in European office buildings: The OFFICAIR project

“…Briefly, it involved building/workspace characterization, monitoring of physical and chemical parameters, and occupant‐related information, by gathering questionnaires and checklists. Further details on the project study design and findings are reported in project‐related publications 23‐25,27‐34 …”

“…Further details on the project study design and findings are reported in project-related publications. [23][24][25][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]…”

Assessment of Indoor Benzene and Its Alkyl Derivatives Concentrations in Offices Belonging to University of Technology (Poland)

“…Styrene and ethylbenzene can be also introduced into the air from the Styrofoam coating layer, commonly used as a building thermal insulation [8,9]. The outdoor sources also contribute to low I/O and these include outdoor pollutants [7,50]. Non-parametric variance analysis ANOVA was used to find the similarity between the different analyzed VOCs.…”

“…Indoor air quality (IAQ) can considerably affect human health and well-being. The issue of IAQ has attracted a great deal of attention of researchers, because people spend approximately 90% of their time indoors [1][2][3]-in homes, offices, schools, shops, and public spaces [4][5][6][7]. Furthermore, indoor air quality is essentially unmonitored and partly unregulated, even though pollutant concentrations are usually higher indoors than outdoors [4,8,9].…”

Importância Da Percepção Dos Usuários Na Avaliação De Conforto Térmico E Qualidade Do Ar / the Importance of Users Perceptions in Thermal Comfort and Air Quality Evaluations

“…Esta síndrome tem relação com o trabalho em ambientes Brazilian Journal of Development, Curitiba, v.7, n.2, p.12529-12548 feb. 2021 fechados e dependentes de ar-condicionado, onde diversos fatores podem trazer prejuízos para a saúde. Segundo Spinazzè et al (2020), os sintomas desencadeados pelos poluentes não seguem um padrão dose-resposta simples, mas dependem de uma combinação de fatores, incluindo a taxa de renovação do ar. Wong et al (2009) discutem quais os parâmetros de importância a serem dosados para que um protocolo de avaliação da qualidade do ar seja eficiente.…”