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Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review

Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is a major target in developed countries toward decreasing their energy consumption and CO(2) emissions. To meet this target, a large number of countries have established energy codes that require buildings to be airtight. While such a retrofitting approa...

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Autor principal: Niculita-Hirzel, Hélène
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8951331/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35329223
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063538
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author Niculita-Hirzel, Hélène
author_facet Niculita-Hirzel, Hélène
author_sort Niculita-Hirzel, Hélène
collection PubMed
description Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is a major target in developed countries toward decreasing their energy consumption and CO(2) emissions. To meet this target, a large number of countries have established energy codes that require buildings to be airtight. While such a retrofitting approach has improved health outcomes in areas with heavy traffic, it has worsened the health outcomes in Nordic countries and increased the risk of lung cancer in areas with high levels of radon emissions. This review highlights the importance of adapting the characteristics of energy-efficient residential buildings to the location, age, and health of inhabitants to guarantee healthy indoor pollutant levels. The implementation of mechanical ventilation in new energy-efficient buildings has solved some of these problems; however, for others, a decrease in the level of outdoor pollutants was still required in order to achieve a good indoor air quality. A good balance between the air exchange rate and the air humidity level (adapted to the location) is key to ensuring that exposure to the various pollutants that accumulate inside energy-efficient buildings is low enough to avoid affecting inhabitants′ health. Evidence of the protective effect of mechanical ventilation should be sought in dwellings where natural ventilation allows pollutants to accumulate to threatening levels. More studies should be carried out in African and Asian countries, which, due to their rapid urbanization, use massive volumes of unproven/unrated building materials for fast-track construction, which are frequent sources of formaldehyde and VOC emissions.
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spelling pubmed-89513312022-03-26 Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review Niculita-Hirzel, Hélène Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is a major target in developed countries toward decreasing their energy consumption and CO(2) emissions. To meet this target, a large number of countries have established energy codes that require buildings to be airtight. While such a retrofitting approach has improved health outcomes in areas with heavy traffic, it has worsened the health outcomes in Nordic countries and increased the risk of lung cancer in areas with high levels of radon emissions. This review highlights the importance of adapting the characteristics of energy-efficient residential buildings to the location, age, and health of inhabitants to guarantee healthy indoor pollutant levels. The implementation of mechanical ventilation in new energy-efficient buildings has solved some of these problems; however, for others, a decrease in the level of outdoor pollutants was still required in order to achieve a good indoor air quality. A good balance between the air exchange rate and the air humidity level (adapted to the location) is key to ensuring that exposure to the various pollutants that accumulate inside energy-efficient buildings is low enough to avoid affecting inhabitants′ health. Evidence of the protective effect of mechanical ventilation should be sought in dwellings where natural ventilation allows pollutants to accumulate to threatening levels. More studies should be carried out in African and Asian countries, which, due to their rapid urbanization, use massive volumes of unproven/unrated building materials for fast-track construction, which are frequent sources of formaldehyde and VOC emissions. MDPI 2022-03-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8951331/ /pubmed/35329223 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063538 Text en © 2022 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Niculita-Hirzel, Hélène
Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review
title Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review
title_full Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review
title_fullStr Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review
title_full_unstemmed Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review
title_short Latest Trends in Pollutant Accumulations at Threatening Levels in Energy-Efficient Residential Buildings with and without Mechanical Ventilation: A Review
title_sort latest trends in pollutant accumulations at threatening levels in energy-efficient residential buildings with and without mechanical ventilation: a review
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8951331/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35329223
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063538
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