Indoor air quality : A guide for UK building surveyors and property professionals

Abstract

This paper serves as an introduction to indoor air quality for UK building surveyors and property professionals. Historically, the quality of the air we breathe has been a significant health concern, resulting in numerous laws and measures to successfully improve it. These have mainly focused, however, on outdoor air. Only recently has attention moved indoors, where most people spend most of their time, at home and at work. Some high-profile tragic events, where vulnerable children have died, have been key in highlighting the importance of good indoor air quality, resulting in Ella’s Law and Awaab’s Law. This paper discusses the principal indoor air pollutants, including particulate matter, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), bioaerosols, human bio-effluents, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, carbon dioxide and radon. It underscores the importance of effective ventilation in maintaining good indoor air quality. It reviews the current legislative landscape for indoor air quality, finding it to be fragmented, comprising a mixture of industry guidance, health and safety regulations and building certification schemes. This is in contrast to the much clearer laws and guidance around outdoor air quality. The advent of relatively cheap monitoring sensors is described as a ‘game-changer’, enabling real-time measurement of indoor air pollutants, as well as various other comfort metrics. More detailed monitoring of specific VOCs using inexpensive adsorbent tubes that collect chemicals in the air, which can then be analysed in a laboratory, is also discussed. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.