Investigation of indoor air pollution sources in climate chambers - emissions from textile floor coverings

There are many sources which may contribute to the contamination of indoor air, especially by organic compounds. Emissions from building materials are of particular importance. As these different materials often emit, at least in part, the same compounds, the sources of indoor air pollution cannot be identified unequivocally by field studies. Test chamber studies of building materials have been employed for source identification. Climate chambers used for measuring formaldehyde released from particle-board are now manufactured commercially and will be standardized in the near future. These chambers are, however, not suited for measuring so-called "volatile organic compounds" (VOC). We have set up two types of climate chambers, the performance of which has been tested extensively. These chambers have been used to study the emissions from textile floor coverings. In this paper investigations under static conditions are reported.