Volatile Organic Compounds in Office Buildings

Abstract

A great number of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are found in the indoor air of office buildings, emitted mainly by the building materials, the consumer products used, the furnishing, office equipment, smoking, mechanical ventila tion systems and outdoor air pollution. An attempt has been made to identify the strongest sources of VOCs in the indoor and outdoor air of six office build ings in Greece. Analysis of the results showed that the VOCs in the outdoor air were strongly related to the traffic in the area. Correlation of the concentra tions found in both the indoor and outdoor air showed that the outdoor air contributes significantly to the chemical pollution load of the indoor air in some of the buildings. Also, a significant intercorrelation was found among the concentration patterns of aromatic and a number of aliphatic compounds, which showed that these compounds were emitted by similar sources. How ever, since these compounds are not emitted exclusively by car exhausts, the identification of their source is difficult. The dominant indoor sources of VOCs were permanent ones such as building materials and furniture.