Exposure analysis for indoor contaminants

Abstract

Due to changes in living and working habits, most individuals spend about 80–90 % of their time in public and private indoor environments. Those offer a broad diversity of pollution situations. Several hundred of very volatile, volatile, semi-volatile, and particular organic compounds (VVOCs, VOCs, SVOCs, and POMs) can be detected in indoor air. Emitting from construction materials (e.g., floorings, paints, furniture, joints), consumer products (electrical and electronic devices) as well as cleaning products, they are one of the determining factors for indoor air quality (IAQ). The wide variety of pollutants, exposure levels, differences in sensitivity as well as different cultural habits and ways of living complicate the assessment of risk. In a variety of reports, indoor air pollutants have been associated with health problems. Therefore, it must be of special interest to obtain reliable data to assess the IAQ. The basis for reliable and comparable data is given by a series of international and national standards for the sampling and determination of volatile (VOC) and semi-volatile (SVOC) organic compounds in indoor air.