The comprehensive study of indoor environment and residents' health, considering chemical sensitivity

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In order to study the indoor environment and the change in pollutant levels, we formed two cohorts to follow in Hokkaido. Formaldehyde has a tendency to become higher in the summer and lower in the winter. We supposed that formaldehyde levels in newly built houses are the highest, but results don't support it. The furniture which residents brought into the house might contribute to formaldehyde concentration.We investigated the longitudinal change of personal exposure levels for chemical sensitivity (CS) patients, and observed the seasonal/monthly trends in their personal exposure levels. No relationship between the recuperation of CS-related symptoms and the concentrations of aldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was recognized ; although, based on the results from active and passive sampling, some of the chemicals may be responsible for the symptoms.A CS treatment house was built at Asahikawa in 2001. The formaldehyde concentration in each room was less than 20 ppb just after the construction and since then. VOC levels were also low. The indoor environment of the house is good for CS with regard to chemical contamination. Patients who started their treatment stay at the CS house were fairly satisfied with staying at the house and with indoor environment. We also conducted the similar study at Izu.We tried to derive the sampling rate (SR) for diffusion samplers from the geometry (diffusion area and diffusion length) of the samplers and the physical properties of VOCs based on Fick's law of diffusion. SRs were also determined experimentally using simultaneous active (pump) and diffusion sampling. For most samplers and most VOCs, the theoretically determined SRs were nearly the same as the experimentally established SRs. Accurate calculation of SRs for VOCs based on the diffusion theory seems possible without the need to perform experimental measurements.