The need for occupant-related and building-related indicators in our guidelines for indoor environmental quality

Abstract

Research has shown that, even though the indoor environmental conditions seem to comply with current guidelines and those conditions seem ‘comfortable’ enough, staying indoors is not good for our health. Reasons for this discrepancy might be the fact that these guidelines are based on single-dose response relationships to prevent negative effects, and that the criteria are determined for an average adult person, ignoring interactions occurring between stressors at human as well as environmental level. The fact that we are dealing with individuals in different scenarios (e.g. homes, offices, schools) and situations (e.g. sitting behind a desk, listening to the teacher, cooking, sleeping,) is ignored.