Particulate matters, unwanted odours and harmful gases within buildings
On average, we spend around 90 per cent of our time indoors. Against this background, it is a major concern to ensure interior environmental air quality and to define harmful concentrations of particulate contaminants, unwanted odours or harmful gases. For this reason, Germany has already created a series of indoor air guidelines for individual substances. These were developed by a group of members of the Indoor Air Hygiene Commission (IRK), the Federal Environment Agency and the Association of the State Board of Health (AOLG). In addition to defining a range of hazardous substances, fine and ultra-fine particles have also been identified as a health risk within indoor areas. Two fundamental sources have been distinguished:
External sources of emissions: outside air contaminated with fine and ultra-fine particulates enters through open windows, doors or leakage areas and thus becomes an indoor risk factor.
Internal sources of emissions: particulate matter is created within a building as a result of, for example, smoking, lighted candles, vacuuming without a fine particle outlet filter, or cooking. In the office and home office, there are numerous devices that emit fine and ultra-fine particles into rooms. These include most laser printers, fax machines, photocopiers and document shredders. In these settings, Freudenberg Filtration Technologies’ micronAir® office products provide reliable, TÜV-certified protection.
