scope:

Introduction

The quality of outdoor air has been monitored for many years with a view to being able to assess and limit the harmful effects of air pollutants on human beings, animals, plants and materials. The quality of air in industrial workplaces has also been checked for decades in order to protect employees. Yet, despite the publication of the work of M, Pettenkofer [6] as long ago as the last Century, public and scientific at¬ tention was focused on the air in non-industrial premises only at a relatively late date.

Two facts whose consequences reinforce one another are responsible for the currently increasing interest in the occurrence and effect of indoor air pollutants. On the one hand, private and public buildings are increasingly being sealed from the outdoor air in the course of energy-saving measures and, on the other hand, the emission of pollutants in the interior of buildings is constantly increasing as a result of the use of novel materials and products. The possibility that there may be adverse effects on wellbeing and even damage to health has consequently increased.

Review Information on the question of "indoor air quality" has been published in Germany by K. Aurand [7] and by the Expert Council on Environmental Questions [1] and in the USA by R. A. Wadden et al. [8], R. B. Gammage [9], N. L. Nagda [10] and C. S. Dudney et al. [11]. Valuable Information is also to be found in the proceedings of international congresses [12 to 14]. Table 1 summarizes the most important types of indoor environments and examples of the sources to be encountered in them. The list cannot, of course, be complete because of the large number of possibilities¹).

1) A detailed list of sources and the substances which emit them is available as a diskette or as a looseleaf brochure from the VDI and DIN Commission on Air Pollution Control, Graf-Recke-Straße 84, D-40239 Düsseldorf.