FLOORING MATERIALS IMPACTS ON INDOOR AIR QUALITY

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgem.org, SGEM2017 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-13-3 / ISSN 1314-2704, 29 June - 5 July, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 62, 609-614 pp, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/62/S27.077

ABSTRACT

A major pollutant in indoor air are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from materials and building products The indoor surface materials are considered to be studied as the principal sources of indoor air pollution. The source control is the most practical approach to improve the indoor air quality. The measure for indoor pollution´s decreasing seems to be the effective control of volatile organic compounds and indoor odors. The perceived indoor air quality in four rooms with various flooring materials was studied. An untrained sensory panel of 20 subjects assessed perceived air quality in tested rooms. The subjects indicated their immediate evaluation on continuous scale regarding acceptability of the air (from -1 clearly unacceptable to +1 clearly acceptable). Continuously the impact of used flooring materials on VOCs emissions was observed. An electronic nose based on gas chromatography was used for the analysis of individual VOCs and a photoionization detector with a UV lamp was used for the determination of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) concentration. The effect of air change level to TVOC concentrations was studied.

Keywords: TVOC emissions, odor characteristic, indoor air quality, air change level