Indoor environment quality

Robyn Phipps, Jeremy Warnes.

This report backgrounds the issues of healthy and unhealthy home environments and provides evidence that the home environment and health are intrinsically linked.

Pollutants that are of concern in new and existing homes include:

  • volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, such as formaldehyde, and benzene,
  • other gaseous pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide,
  • microbiological pollutants such as fungi, bacteria and dustmites and fragments of these,
  • particulates,
  • and noise.

Concentrations in the homes of these pollutants can be exacerbated by an indoor climate that is too cold and damp, or hot and humid, and has inadequate ventilation to dilute the pollutants, moisture and heat from inside the home.