Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) has always stressed the importance of indoor air quality (IAQ) and the potential danger of pollutants emitted from indoor sources; thus, it has become one of the main determinants for health. In recent years, reference documents and guidelines have been produced on many pollutants in order to: i) decrease their impact on human health (as well as the number of pollutants present in indoor environments), and ii) regulate the relevant levels of chemicals that can be emitted from the various materials. The aim of this paper is to discuss and compare the different legislations present in the European Union (EU). Furthermore, a focus of this paper will be dedicated at Italian legislation, where there is currently no specific reference to IAQ. Although initiatives in the pre-regulatory sector have multiplied, a comprehensive and integrated policy on the issue is lacking. Pending framework law for indoor air quality, which takes into account WHO indications, the National Study Group (GdS) on Indoor Air Pollution by the Italian Institute of Health (IIS) is committed to providing shared technical-scientific documents in order to allow actions harmonized at a national level. An outlook of the main Italian papers published during these last five years will be reported and discussed.
Highlights
Indoor air quality (IAQ) has been a well-known problem since the late 1970s
The Parma declaration, the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe CEHAPE), European Union (EU) regulations; documents, and rules for characterization and determination on many pollutants (e.g., European Standards (EN) International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 16000—Indoor air quality, European technical specification (CEN/TS) 16516: construction products—determination of emission into indoor air). The purpose of this documentation is to tend to the decrease in the number of pollutants present in indoor environments and to regulate the levels of chemicals that can be emitted from different materials, in order to contain the negative impacts on IAQ
The aim of this paper is to summarize the entire legislation on IAQ present in the EU, in February 2020, along with reference values, guide values, and unitary risks for many kinds of indoor air pollutants present
Summary
Indoor air quality (IAQ) has been a well-known problem since the late 1970s. Its significant impact on human health has been addressed several times by the World Health Organization (WHO) in various documents and meetings, and has been carried out at various levels [1,2,3]. The Parma declaration, the Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe CEHAPE), European Union (EU) regulations (e.g., regulation 305/2011, which lays down harmonized conditions for the marketing of construction products); documents, and rules for characterization and determination on many pollutants (e.g., European Standards (EN) ISO 16000—Indoor air quality, European technical specification (CEN/TS) 16516: construction products—determination of emission into indoor air) The purpose of this documentation is to tend to the decrease in the number of pollutants present in indoor environments and to regulate the levels of chemicals that can be emitted from different materials, in order to contain the negative impacts on IAQ. There have been many scientific papers and studies performed on IAQ, and a methodic and analytical review of the papers published in the last five years concerning the indoor field will be documented, it will be highlighted that, in Italy, the main problem is the lack of reference standards for residential indoor air quality
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