Emissions from materials and structures (Invited paper)

According to many indoor/outdoor studies of chemical compounds, the latest international being the European Expolis- project, the exposure to volatile organic compounds, VOCs, is highest indoors as seen in Figure 1. This figure shows the time weighed exposure distribution of Helsinki urban area office workers between home, home outdoor air and office air. The figure clearly indicates that when striving to diminish the air borne exposure of the population, it is of importance to diminish the indoor concentrations especially as some pollutants frequently cause health and irritation problems. Practical experience also indicates, that in the presence of irritative chemical compounds, particles or other type of pollution, e.g. due to microbial growth, symptoms often occur after half a year or longer exposure