
The impact on buildings. Globally, outdoor air quality is deteriorating due to pollution from traffic, construction, agricultural activity, combusting sources and particulate matter. Because ambient air diffuses easily, even distant sources of pollution have a huge impact on the more than 15,000 liters of air we breath every day.
Indoor air quality can be degraded by these outdoor sources, as well as by off-gassing from building materials, indoor combustion sources and water leaks. Poor ventilation practices can fail to address these sources, exposing us to volatile organic compounds (VOC's), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's) and microbial pathogens. Another way in which indoor air...