Abstract:
People in industrialised countries spend approximately 80% of their time indoors
and the young and the elderly and people in poor health are likely to spend
considerably more time indoors, particularly at home. Therefore all aspects of
health that are related to environmental conditions can be impacted by the
quality of the indoor environment. The indoor environment should provide shelter
from the extremes of the outdoors and maintain a comfortable indoor climate,
particularly thermal comfort, and provide appropriate protection against other
environmental factors including pollutants, infectious agents and noise.
Expected future changes in climate resulting from the impact of man on the
atmosphere leading to global warming will impact the effectiveness of buildings
to provide appropriate shelter and associated environmental conditions.
