Indoor air quality
The right to breathe clean air
Air pollution is one of the biggest global environmental and health challenges of all time. In fact indoor air can be up to five times as polluted as outdoor air. This means that we are at higher risk of suffering from asthma and other respiratory diseases if we stay in buildings with poor air quality. What’s worse is that children are even more sensitive.
Importance of indoor air quality
We spend 90% of our time indoors
- On average we spend 21.6 hours indoors each day (and on average 628 992 hours in a life time).
- We spend 58 years of our life at home – 27 of those years are spent in the bedroom.
- You breathe around 8 to 10 liters of air every minute. You breathe 6 liters of air per minute when you rest, and around 100 liters when you work out.
- You could live 3 Weeks without food, 3 days without water, but just 3 minutes without air.
- Indoor air can actually be up to 5 times more polluted than outside air.
How much indoor climate affects health and comfort?
- Poor indoor air often causes headaches, loss of concentration, and other short-term effects such as eye, throat and skin irritation. Long-term effects can be allergies, respiratory disease and cancer.
- Sick leave can decrease by up to 50% by improving the indoor climate.
- Most people experience comfort when the temperature is between 20-24 degrees C.
- How you experience the indoor climate depends on quite a few variables; choice of clothing and activity, temperature, air speed, humidity of the air, as well as the temperature of the surrounding surfaces.
- When the air in a room is moving at 0.2 m/s we already experience a draught.
Air filtration
Filtration is important! People spend most of their life indoors. Not only at home, but in various places such as offices, schools, restaurants, shopping malls or cinemas. It goes without saying that having a clean air indoors is crucial for the health of the population as a whole and in particular vulnerable groups such as babies, children or elderly people.
Healthy indoor climate
Indoor air quality is affected by humans, furniture and building materials?
- Thousands of different types of household products emit pollutants (VOCs) in our indoor air come from humans and building material (too high VOC levels might increase risk of cancer and liver, kidney and nerve damage)
- Another type of pollution is particles. They vary in size (from PM1, PM2.5 to PM10) and harmfulness. With the right type of filters in the ventilation system these particles can be removed.
- Too high levels of CO2 often headaches and loss of concentration.
- An occupied conference room without ventilation reaches a too high CO2 level in 10 minutes. (recommended maximum level equal to 1000 ppm)
- A single office room without ventilation reaches the recommended maximum level of CO2 in just 15 minutes.
Regulations
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Sick Building Syndrome
Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) refers to a situation where occupants of a building experience health issues or discomfort that seem to be linked directly to time spent inside the building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified. Symptoms often include headaches, dizziness, fatigue, respiratory problems, and irritation of the eyes, nose, or throat. Poor indoor air quality, inadequate ventilation, and exposure to chemical pollutants from building materials, cleaning products, or office equipment are common factors contributing to SBS. Addressing ventilation, improving air quality, and regular maintenance of HVAC systems are essential to preventing and mitigating Sick Building Syndrome.
