Editors-in-Chief Neil Donahue and Kristopher McNeill, Daniel Korbel Hannah Macdonald from the RSC's Policy Evidence team, introduce themed issue on indoor air quality.

To evaluate the levels of indoor air pollution in rural areas of China and their effects on respiratory health, we monitored the indoor (bedroom and kitchen) and outdoor levels of PM10, SO2 and CO in 189 randomly selected households of rural areas, Anhui province, China. We also conducted an investigation of 487 subjects between the ages of 15 – 65 years old with a questionnaire. The PM10 level...

A human life demand set to emerge in the future is the achievement of sustainability by maintaining a comfortable indoor environment without excessive reliance on energy-consuming air conditioners. The major research processes in this study are: (1) measuring indoor air quality and thermal comfort to evaluate the comfort of an indoor environment; (2) implementing questionnaire survey analysis t...

introduction reducing and optimizing energy consumption and consequently environmental pollution reductions, besides improving building performance providing occupants comfort conditions, make the building's concept closer to the concept of green building and sustainability. once the decision to build green has been made, one of the first steps in the green design process is to establish f...

This paper selectively reviews scientific research on the positive effects on building occupant’s health, well-being and productivity that result from the presence of indoor plants in the workplace. Case studies show improvement in indoor air quality, (with a reduction in the levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), improved productivity by up to 12%, and reduced absenteeism and staff turno...

A knowledge-based system is presented that has been developed to be used as an advisor in the preliminary design stage of HVAC systems. It enables designers to configure and size HVAC equipment for different climatic conditions, in terms of building type, indoor requirements, outdoor and indoor air pollution. A new approach has been used in building the system, using a modified knowledge engine...

Indoor air quality has been the object of interest for scientists and specialists from the fields of science such as chemistry, medicine and ventilation system design. This results from a considerable number of potential factors, which may influence the quality of the broadly understood indoor air in a negative way. Poor quality of indoor air in various types of public utility buildings may sig...