Issue link: https://hi.iaq.net/i/191637
Climate Change, the Indoor Environment, and Health 4 Air Quality INTRODUCTION Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important component of indoor environmental quality. It has many facets. This chapter focuses on the chemical and particulate pollutants that can be found suspended in air or deposited on or sorbed to indoor surfaces. It specifically addresses organic and inorganic volatile and semivolatile molecular pollutants, and particulate matter. In the case of particles, abiotic materials are emphasized, but there is a brief discussion of allergens associated with pollen and of respiratory health risks associated with algal blooms after floods. IAQ problems associated with moisture and dampness of buildings are addressed in Chapter 5, and biologic IAQ concerns associated with microbial agents, insects and arthropods, and mammals and concerns that arise because of efforts to control them are discussed in Chapter 6. With regard to the pollutants considered in this chapter, there is little in the published literature that considers together all the key elements in this committee's charge: the effects of climate change on IAQ that would influence public health. However, substantial research has been published on many important components. For example, there is a strong emerging literature on the effects of climate change on outdoor air pollutants (Jacob and Winner, 2009), such as particulate matter (Tagaris et al., 2007) and ozone (Bell et al., 2007; Hogrefe et al., 2004a; Racheria and Adams, 2009), and on related health effects (Kinney, 2008; Tagaris et al., 2009). A voluminous literature characterizes health risks associated with pollutants in outdoor air (Bell et al., 2004; Dockery et al., 1993; Jerrett et al., 79 Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.