Designing a Simple Tool Kit and Protocol for the Investigation of the Indoor Environment in Homes

Abstract

Monitoring indoor environments can be complicated, time consuming and expensive. The objective of this study was to pinpoint indoor environmental variables that are essential for providing an assessment of the condition of the indoor environment in homes. The Statistical Package for Social Statistics was used to conduct principal component analysis on data from three existing housing and health studies - two UK studies using 38 (n 124 homes) and 49 (n 88 homes) variables and one Swedish study using 104 (n 60 homes) variables. The analyses highlighted 18 components, which represented the variables from all three studies. The 18 components were further reduced to 14 because of considerations of expense and time. The 14 components were: temperature; humidity; dampness; number of people; number of pets; dust mites; airborne microbes; plant related microbes; carbon dioxide (CO₂); volatile organic compounds; particles; weather data; ventilation; and information about the dwelling. These components form the basis for an indoor assessment that can be used in environmental studies of people’s homes by non-environmental scientists.