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SOURCES OF INDOOR AIR CONTAMINANTS: CHARACTERIZING EMISSIONS AND HEALTH EFFECTS
Citation:
Tucker*, W. G. SOURCES OF INDOOR AIR CONTAMINANTS: CHARACTERIZING EMISSIONS AND HEALTH EFFECTS. None, Chapter 1&6, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. New York Academy of Sciences, 641:322-328, (1992).
Description:
This document consists of the Preface, Chapter 1. Introduction, Chapter 6. Conclusion, and References relating to an October 1990 conference at the John B. Pierce Laboratory and Yale University, New Haven, CT.
The purpose of a May 1985 international conference on indoor source characterization, held at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was to stimulate research on chemical and physical characterization of emissions. However, the purpose of the 1990 conference was to stimulate interdisciplinary research on biological-response-based testing of emissions.
Many of the key researchers from the 1985 conference attended the 1990 conference to present state-of-the-science papers on emissions characterizing techniques and exposure modeling. New participants (approximately half of the invited presenters) came from the biological and medical sciences; many of them had no previous direct connection to indoor air quality research. Their expertise covered irritation of the eyes, nose, and airways; neuropsychological and behavioral reactions to inhaled agents; and possible influences of inhaled agents on the functioning of the immune system.
Research on air quality in non-industrial workplaces and residential settings has had four major thrusts: (1) determining concentrations of chemical, physical, and microbial air contaminants and exposures of building occupants to these contaminants; (2) assessing health and comfort effects caused by exposure to indoor air contaminants; (3) determining the sources of the contaminants and how their emissions disperse in buildings; and (4) evaluating options for control of indoor air quality through source control, ventilation, or air cleaning. Research on sources of indoor air contaminants has become known as "source characterization".
The primary goal of source characterization research and development is to help prevent indoor air quality problems. The results provide guidance to building designers and architects, builders and building owners, product manufacturers, and the general public on how to select, use, and produce materials and products that reduce harmful emissions and improve indoor air quality.