Chemical, Microbiological, Health and Comfort Aspects of Indoor Air Quality - State of the Art in SBS

Interest in indoor air quality (IAQ) is growing at public, political and scientific levels. Complaints about poor IAQ, associated with acute symptoms such as mucous irritation, headaches and bad odour occur frequently, particularly in the office environment, where typical patterns of symptoms often occur, leading to the coining of the term "sick building syndrome". In the present book, the following issues are addressed: the dynamics of the indoor environment and strategies for indoor measurement; chemical and microbiological pollution, important species, sources and detection methods; effects of indoor pollution, in particular sensory irritation, including odour; airway,eye and skin irritation by organic pollutants and their assessment; immune effects, including allergic sensitization; chemical hyper-responsiveness; controlled human reactions to organic pollutants; building investigation, approaches and results; source characterization and control; criteria, norms and techniques in indoor air pollution, and regulatory aspects. The complex, multifactorial nature of sick building syndrome requires multidisciplinary collaboration from very diverse fields.It is evident that communication between researchers coming from different areas, all speaking their own language is a very difficult task. This book aims to present a solid foundation on the state of the art on sick buildings and how to cure them.