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So why is the concern for poor indoor air growing?

Poor quality indoor air aggravates respiratory ailments. The incidence of asthma has increased dramatically over the last 25 years in the U.S.

An estimated 23.2 million Americans suffer from the ailment, including almost 9 million under the age of 18. According to the American Lung Association (ALA), asthma is the seventh-ranked chronic health condition in the United States and the leading chronic illness of children, making their airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants.

Asthma causes almost 500,000 hospitalizations and about 5,000 deaths annually. Health care costs associated with asthma are estimated at $14.5 billion a year. The number of deaths due to asthma, the number of Americans diagnosed with asthma, and the health care costs of asthma continue to increase each year. Hospitalizations due to asthma have increased 25 percent since 1979, and asthma deaths increased 109 percent between 1979 and 1998. Poor air quality is suspected to be a main culprit in the rise of respiratory ailments over the past two decades.

Contamination and excess moisture are chief causes of so-called “sick building syndrome” and are responsible for a long list of allergies and pathologies. Concentration of toxic or harmful substances—like dust, pollens, spores and bacteria as well as pathogenic germs and bacilli increase dangerously when there is a lack of fresh air.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies of human exposure to air pollutants indicate that indoor levels of pollutants may be 2-5 times, and occasionally more than 100 times, higher than outdoor levels. These levels of indoor air pollutants are of particular concern because most people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors.

Modern buildings clearly have a problem in providing a healthy or even appropriate indoor environment. The EPA concedes that about 30 percent of new or renovated buildings have serious indoor air quality (IAQ) problems, and ranks IAQ as the nation’s most prominent environmental problem.

Controlled ventilation, properly considered building design, and the use of healthy building materials can provide good indoor air quality and help to solve this problem.