Ambient (outdoor) air quality in cities in industrialized countries has improved greatly in recent decades. During this same period, indoor air quality has declined because of energy conservation, decreased ventilation and the introduction of many new materials and sources of indoor pollution. These developments and the fact that people in industrialized countries spend 90% of their lives indoors on average makes the quality of indoor air an important environmental issue with far-reaching implications for human health. Allergic and asthmatic diseases have doubled in industrialized countries during the past two decades. They comprise one of the greatest current problems for public health, with enormous costs for medicine, treatment and absenteeism.

In many industrialized countries, half the schoolchildren suffer from these allergic diseases, which are the main reason for absenteeism in schools. Indoor air quality has declined partly because of comprehensive energy conservation campaigns and partly because high energy prices have motivated people to tighten their dwellings and reduce the rate of ventilation, so that the air change rate in many homes is at a historically low level. Other factors contributing to poor indoor air quality are the many new materials, especially polymers, and the numerous electronic devices that have been introduced indoors in recent decades, especially in children’s rooms.

Bjarne W. OlesenPage

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