Volatile organic compounds in office buildings

Journal article, 1993

This paper concerns field measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in five office buildings. The buildings were selected to represent buildings without obvious problems with regard to the indoor air quality. The total concentrations of VOCs (TVOC) were measured using two different detection principles. Both short-term measurements and continuous monitoring were carried out. The results show that the use of continuous TVOC monitoring can provide valuable information in addition to the results obtained by sampling. The indoor TVOC concentrations obtained by gas chromatography ranged from 0.16 to 0.35 mgm−3. The indoor-outdoor TVOC concentration difference obtained by photoacoustic spectroscopy was about twice as high during working hours as during the night time. Furthermore, it is indicated that VOCs in indoor environments do not only originate from construction materials and other internal sources. Outdoor sources can also have a substantial influence on the indoor VOC concentrations.