Sensory responses to clean air and air polluted by five building materials under different combinations of temperature and humidity in the ranges 18-28°C and 30-70%RH were studied in the laboratory. A specially designed test system was built and a set of experiments was designed to observe separately the impact of temperature and humidity on the perception of air quality/odor intensity, and on the emission of pollutants from the materials. This paper reports on the impact on perception.
The goal of this project was to improve the quality of indoor air in a multistoried residentialbuilding of 81 flats built in 1960. The building is located in a heavily built urban area ofHelsinki. The building had a mechanical exhaust ventilation system without outdoor air inlets.A questionnaire was sent to occupants and a condition survey was made prior to renovation. Themain indoor climate problem was draught with a prevalence of 60 %. Other almost as commonproblems were traffic noise also during nights and dust coming from the street.
The emissions of building materials like volatile organic compounds and indoor airbornecontaminants such as environmental tobacco smoke expose occupants to hazardowsubstances. Although impacts of indoor air quality problems on human health, comfort, andproductivity are quite large, no adequate evaluation methodology exists to assess contaminantsource control techniques and building equipment systems.
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