Reflections on the Evidentiary Basis of Indoor Air Quality Standards

Christiane Berger, Ardeshir Mahdavi, Elie Azar, Karol Bandurski, Leonidas Bourikas, Timuçin Harputlugil, Runa T. Hellwig, Ricardo Forgiarini Rupp and Marcel Schweiker
Additional contact information
Christiane Berger: Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Human Building Interaction, Aalborg University, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark
Ardeshir Mahdavi: Department of Building Physics and Building Ecology, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, TU Wien, 1040 Vienna, Austria
Elie Azar: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada
Karol Bandurski: Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Energy, Institute of Environmental Engineering and Building Installations, Poznań University of Technology, 60-965 Poznań, Poland
Leonidas Bourikas: Energy & Climate Change Group, School of Engineering, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Timuçin Harputlugil: Department of Architecture, Çankaya University, Ankara 06790, Turkey
Runa T. Hellwig: Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Human Building Interaction, Aalborg University, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark
Ricardo Forgiarini Rupp: Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Marcel Schweiker: Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Healthy Living Spaces Lab, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 20, 1-18

Abstract: Buildings are expected to provide healthy and comfortable indoor environmental conditions for their users. Such conditions have diverse dimensions, including thermal, visual, air quality, auditory, and olfactory aspects. Indoor environmental quality standards, guidelines, and codes typically inform professionals in the building design and operation phase in view of procedural, contractual, and legal boundary conditions. Given this critical role of standards, it seems significant to examine the applicability and scientific validity on a regular basis. In this context, the present paper focuses on the standard-based definition of indoor air quality (IAQ) indicators and their respective values. Hence, the main aim of this effort is to study several common national and international IAQ standards in view of the scope to which they include direct or indirect evidence for the validity and applicability of their mandates and requirements. To this end, selected IAQ standards were assessed via a structured schema that includes not only basic information, quality indicators, and suggested and recommended value ranges, but also any reference to scientific studies. The findings of this effort identify certain issues with the transparency of the chain of evidence from the results of technical literature and standard-based IAQ recommendations. Moreover, recommendations are made for the development of future transparent and evidence-based IAQ standards and guidelines.

Keywords: indoor air quality; standards; scientific evidence; ventilation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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