Development of French Indoor Air Quality Guidelines. Method and example for Formaldehyde
Résumé
Indoor air quality (IAQ) guidelines provide safe levels of indoor pollutant concentrations below which adverse health effects are not expected to occur in general population, including sensitive subgroups. The French Agency for environmental and occupational health safety (AFSSET) and the French Scientific and technical centre for building (CSTB) have been leading a working group in charge of development of IAQ guidelines based on human toxicological criteria. First, a list of substances of concern was established. Then for each pollutant of concern, existing health effect-based IAQ guidelines recommended by international groups or by other countries are collected. Available human toxicological values from US-Environmental Protection Agency, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Health Canada and Dutch Agency for environmental health are listed as well. After a critical analysis of these values, IAQ guidelines are proposed. Elaboration of IAQ guidelines for formaldehyde is presented.