Introduction to the Risk Assessment Workshop on Indoor Air Quality1

Abstract

Due to the emerging importance of the indoor air-quality problem and associated health risk concerns, on December 6-8, 1988 a three-day workshop on indoor air-quality risk assessment was jointly organized by Harvard University, Energy and Environmental Policy Center, and the Harvard School of Public Health. This introduction briefly summarizes the objectives of the workshop and its agenda. The workshop consisted of presentations and discussions by researchers from academic, government, and private institutions. Among the participants were those who have been involved in the design of major field studies of human exposure, physicians and toxicologists involved in clinical studies, human exposure modelers, and epidemiologists and health risk assessors. The overall objective of the workshop was to examine the critical elements needed to perform risk assessments on major indoor air pollutants. Eight pollutants were chosen for discussion: environmental tobacco smoke, formaldehyde, radon, volatile organic compounds, biologicals, man-made mineral fibers, nitrogen dioxide, and semivolatile organic compounds. Twenty-two papers were presented in the workshop. Eight of these papers are published in this issue of Risk Analysis. Nine of the remaining fourteen will shortly be published in the 'Exposure Assessment Section' issue of the Journal of Toxicology and Industrial Health.