The air we breathe may harbour potentially harmful pollutants, creating serious risks to the health, comfort, satisfaction and productivity of employees working in buildings.
Pollutants can come from various sources, including building materials and furnishings.
Yet until recently, little was known about how material emissions contribute to indoor pollution. This research is part of a five-year project to study material emission characteristics. From the results, researchers expect to develop guidelines for selecting materials with few or no emitted pollutants, and ventilation strategies to enable new or retrofitted buildings to meet a specified IAQ level. The IRC research team is developing methods and procedures for measuring emission characteristics under both laboratory and field conditions, and models for predicting the concentration of contaminants emitted by various materials. It will also create a database of emission information for use in the selection of materials and furnishings.