Editorial

Abstract

This supplement to Indoor Air is the third publication of peer-reviewed papers expanded from presentations at ‘Indoor Air 2002’, the 9th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate. Selected authors of conference papers were invited to expand and update their conference papers for peer review and possible inclusion in this supplement. Previous publications from expanded conference papers were ‘Indoor Chemistry and Physics’, published in a special issue of Atmospheric Environment in December 2003, and ‘Indoor Air and Exposure’ published in a supplement to Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology in April 2004. Future supplements to Indoor Air will include a collection of papers on health and another on bioaerosols. We have chosen the term ‘Building Science’ to represent the unifying theme for the papers in this supplement. The papers cover a wide range of topics demonstrating the extensive scope of indoor air research. While the papers collected here are in no systematic way representative of the range of indoor environmental quality issues of concern, the breadth of their scopes and methods used begins to suggest the complexity and richness of studies intended to elucidate the various processes that occur in buildings and their consequences on the indoor environment and its occupants. Research in most intellectual areas tends to follow general themes as peoples' ideas of new issues and new techniques for addressing these issues emerge. The collection of papers in this issue demonstrates these overlaps and new techniques nicely. Productivity issues are addressed by papers of Witterseh et al., Kaczmarczyk et al. and Wargocki et al. The first two papers examine productivity using experimental interventions in a well-controlled laboratory setting − the third, an investigation in a call-center. A call-center is also the setting used in the intervention study of Federspiel et al. The study by Kaczmarczyk et al. used personalized ventilation as a major variable in the study. Personalized ventilation is also a major variable in the paper by Faulkner et al. Interactions of worker health and indoor CO2 are examined in the paper by Erdmann and Apte using the data set that emerged from EPA's BASE study of non-complaint buildings in the US. The building and building operations as a major source of pollutants are examined in papers of Wilke et al., Hodgson et al. and Brown et al. The changes in VOCs that occur because the building is located in regions with high concentrations of ozone is explored in the paper by Pommer et al. Occupant response to these VOCs is examined in the paper by Cometto-Muñiz et al. Mitigation using building components as scavengers is discussed by Ataka et al. New technologies allow new approaches to building operation. Zagreus et al. report studies linking building occupants to building operators using the web to improve these interactions. Alas, buildings found in cities are usually near outdoor sources of pollution and noise. Oldham et al. report their work reducing noise transmission through ventilation openings. This brings us back to the paper of Witterseh et al. examining the effects of noise on productivity. We hope this issue along with the other four postconference publications may provide readers with a sense of the vastness of the field and some exemplary work. We trust that you will enjoy reading the papers in this supplement to Indoor Air. We thank all the authors and the reviewers for their contributions that have made this publication possible.