Sorption of gaseous compounds on indoor materials - consequences for air quality.

Materials in the indoor environment are generally regarded as the sources of contaminants which affect air quality indoors. Broadly speaking the same mechanisms which determine the emission of contaminants from materials also determine the way contaminants in air are taken up by materials, i.e. the sink effect. The most dramatic effects of the sink effect occur when room air concentrations are rapidly changed, for example when chemicals are emitted from various activities such as painting, cooking smoking, the use of detergents or other household chemicals. Nobody has so far been able to come up with an answer as to the importance of activity-related contamination of the indoor environment in comparison with contamination from the primary emissions from materials. For such a comparison, modelling of the sink effect is of fundamental importance. The project has so far concentrated on developing a technique for experimental determination of the material parameters needed for characterisation of material properties with respect to sorption and desorption of contaminants in indoor air. In the work, mathematical models are also used which couple these properties with air flow models in order that the consequences in a real environment may be predicted. Experiments on a larger scale are now planned in cooperation with the Occupational Medicine unit at Karolinska Hospital.