Public health officials have focused their efforts on outside
air pollution for decades, establishing laws and guidelines
for what is acceptable air to breath. As it turns out,
however, people spend a lot more time indoors than out
and, on average, the air is far dirtier indoors. Pollutants
range from the merely unpleasant to the potentially deadly.
The health effects of low exposures to many of these substances
over long time periods is not well understood.
Yet,
it seems prudent to have a working knowledge of what’s
in the air you’re breathing and to take commonsense steps
to eliminate or minimize materials that, in larger doses,
make most people sick.
A summary of common indoor pollutants
is shown in
Table 7-5, Table of Common Indoor Air Hazards is at INDOOR AIR HAZARDS TABLE provided just below in this document
Table of Common Indoor Air Hazards, Contaminants, Pollutants
The following table, issued in three sections, lists common indoor air hazards and contaminants, providing for each contaminant the name, description, primary household sources, health effects, typical exposure levels, and steps to reduce exposure. Below on this page we add corrosive sulphur outgassing from Chinese drywall and a link to odor detection help in buildings.
Update: to the indoor air quality hazards listed in these tables we add
CHINESE DRYWALL HAZARDS discusses Chinese drywall odors, sulphur smells, and corrosive outgassing hazards in buildings. Major costs to remove this product, repair or replace electrical wiring, plumbing, and HVAC components may be involved, and there may be immediate safety hazards due to damaged smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors in buildings where Chinese drywall outgassing has caused damage.
Steven Bliss served as editorial director and co-publisher of The Journal of Light Construction for 16 years and previously as building technology editor for Progressive Builder and Solar Age magazines. He worked in the building trades as a carpenter and design/build contractor for more than ten years and holds a masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Excerpts from his recent book, Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction, Wiley (November 18, 2005) ISBN-10: 0471648361, ISBN-13: 978-0471648369, appear throughout this website, with permission and courtesy of Wiley & Sons. Best Practices Guide is available from the publisher, J. Wiley & Sons, and also at Amazon.com.
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Table of Common Indoor Air Hazards, Sources, Effects, Remedies
