indoor air pollution

This project aims to enhance the odor environment in laundry and linen rooms in nursing homes. The problem arises from the storage of soiled laundry in these rooms for several days before it is collected or washed, leading to the release of odorants. This often causes discomfort for both staff and residents, as the odors can spread to hallways and adjacent spaces. Aarhus Municipality intends to investigate whether this issue can be fully or partially resolved by installing air purifiers in the rooms.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is influenced by several parameters and the sources of indoor air pollutants are numerous (building materials, occupant behavior, HVAC systems, Outdoor air, etc.). Utilization of low-cost sensor devices for screening the indoor air pollution has notably drawn interest over the recent years. These systems are easy to access, portable, need low maintenance, and can provide real-time and continuous screening of target contaminants.

Ventilation and source control (e.g. using low volatile organic compound (VOC) emitting materials) are two recommended approaches to control indoor air pollution and VOC’s in particular. Decisions on how to minimize exposure can be supported by indoor air chemistry modeling, since the relationships between VOC’s, their precursors, and building ventilation is so complex. For example, modeling could be used to examine the impact of altering building ventilation.

Home electrical appliances release hazardous chemical substances produced by the effects of heatingduring their operation. The present study investigated the emission rates of chemical substances onhome electrical appliances such as microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, electric heaters, electricblankets, multimedia players, electronic dictionaries, MD players and notebook PCs.The VOCs emission rates of comparatively small products were measured using a small-scaleenvironmental chamber with a volume of 0.065 [m3].

In North America, there are ~140 million homes and 4 million public buildings. More than one fifth of theenergy use in Canada is used to condition air whether from the cold in much of Canada or providecooling and heating where summers are hot and humid and winters are cold. To reduce greenhousegases and improve housing affordability, this energy use needs to be reduced. In 1981, the Federal andProvincial governments understood that science was needed to inform building codes in relation tooccupant health.

Recently, a big change in indoor air environment has been recognized. This new problem is caused byhigh air tightness, high adiabatic and newly building material, and has been the cause of healthproblems which is called Sick Building Syndrome. This study has been conducted to understand thepresent state of indoor air pollution by chemical pollutions in 23 Japanese large-scale buildings to beopen for public people. We also investigated the personal exposure level of employees under theperiod of working at the above-mentioned building and of staying at individual houses.