Indoor air pollutants, comfort parameters and their interactions in the context of sustainable development of the built environment

Abstract

In the frame of the 2030 Agenda, adopted also by Romania, Good Health and Well-being for people is the third of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) settled by the United Nations General Assembly. Because human health concerns are in the core of the mission of sustainability, health and sustainable development are strongly interlinked. Numerous worldwide studies specify that many health problems are associated with the air pollutants and their interactions with comfort parameters. Therefore, the approaches towards more sustainable buildings or construction products must take into consideration potential human exposure to pollutants and associated health effects. Our studies were conducted in various type of spaces -offices, residential and educational, by the monitoring of the pollutants' concentrations and the comfort parameters. Regarding to the CO2 concentration, it was observed that the recorded average values were between 888 and 1668ppm, in offices, between 1053 and 1389 ppm, in residential, and between 1720 and 4302ppm, in educational spaces, in all cases above the limit of 800ppm. The average values of CO concentration varied between 0.35 and 3.90 ppm, under the limit of 50 ppm. It was observed that the temperature and relative humidity have a determinant influence on the level of monitored pollutants.