Indoor Air Quality in Buildings: A Comprehensive Review on the Factors Influencing Air Pollution in Residential and Commercial Structure

Abstract

Worldwide people tend to spend approximately 90% of their time in different indoor environments. Along with the penetration of outside air pollutants, contaminants are produced in indoor environments due to different activities such as heating, cooling, cooking, and emissions from building products and the materials used. As people spend most of their lives in indoor environments, this has a significant influence on human health and productivity. Despite the two decades of indoor air quality (IAQ) research from different perspectives, there is still a lack of comprehensive evaluation of peer-reviewed IAQ studies that specifically covers the relationship between the internal characteristics of different types of building environments with IAQ to help understand the progress and limitations of IAQ research worldwide. Therefore, this review of scientific studies presents a broad spectrum of pollutants identified in both residential and commercial indoor environments, highlighting the trends and gaps in IAQ research. Moreover, analysis of literature data enabled us to assess the different IAQs in buildings located in different countries/regions, thus reflecting the current global scientific understanding of IAQ. This review has the potential to benefit building professionals by establishing indoor air regulations that account for all indoor contaminant sources to create healthy and sustainable building environments.

Keywords: indoor air pollution; influencing factors indoor; office indoor pollutants; residential indoor pollutants; school indoor pollutants.

Figure 1

Pie chart of the percentage of time spent in indoor and outdoor environments. Data were collected from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) sponsored National Human Activity Pattern Database (NHAPS). The total number of participants was 9196, and approximately 87% of the time spent in indoor environments was in residential buildings, office buildings, restaurants, and other indoor places, such as malls, stores, schools, churches, public building, salons, health clubs, parking garages, auto-repair shops, and laundromats [1].

Figure 2

Literature search criteria and steps.

Figure 3

Range for five different indoor air pollutants concentration in residential buildings for selected countries. The numbers with each country’s name refer to the references. The indoor air pollutants concentration data for residential buildings collected for different countries from the following references: 1: [70]; 2. [61]; 3. [49]; 4. [46,63]; 5. [50]; 6. [56]; 7. [66]; 8. [58]; 9. [60]. The green color bar represents study results for green building.