Page 3 - EN-Elixair_HVAC-wholesellers-lores

What causes problems with
indoor air quality?

VOC 2% Carbon monoxide 4%
Moisture and mould 3% PM2.5 from outdoors 50%
Passive smoking 2%

Bioaerosols 7%

Radon 16%

PM2.5 from indoors 16% PM2.5 = fine particles smaller than
2.5 µm in diameter

Brand new houses have a lot of material emissions. Usually, the amount of emissions
decreases to a normal level in approximately six months, if the ventilation works
properly.

Problems with indoor air quality are Factors that influence the concentrations
caused by, for example, road dust, pollen, of VOC in indoor air include, for example:
animal dust, traffic emissions and building • Age of the building
materials from outdoors or by volatile organic • Materials that contain VOCs
compounds. These are gaseous substances • Traffic
that evaporate from building or decoration • Industry
materials or detergents and are made up of • Ventilation
residual solvents and raw materials as well as • Room temperature and humidity
reaction and degradation products from the
production process. (emissions increase as materials
become wetter or warmer)
Volatile organic compounds (VOC) are gases, • Detergents
and there are hundreds of them. Examples
of VOCs include aromatic hydrocarbons According to the Decree on Health-
(toluene, benzene), aldehydes, halogenated related Conditions of Housing and Other
compounds, esters and alcohols (ethanol, Residential Buildings (Ministry of Social
n-butanol, propanol). Affairs and Health, 2015), the action limit
for the total indoor concentration of volatile
The negative health effects of VOCs include organic compounds determined as toluene
eye irritation, mucosal irritation and headache. equivalents is 400 µg/m3. The action limit
for the total indoor concentration of a single
volatile organic compound determined as
toluene equivalent is 50 µg/m3.