Abstract
Worldwide people tend to spend approximately 90% of their time in different indoor
environments. Along with the penetration of outside air pollutants, contaminants are produced in
indoor environments due to different activities such as heating, cooling, cooking, and emissions from
building products and the materials used. As people spend most of their lives in indoor environments,
this has a significant influence on human health and productivity. Despite the two decades of
indoor air quality (IAQ) research from different perspectives, there is still a lack of comprehensive
evaluation of peer-reviewed IAQ studies that specifically covers the relationship between the internal
characteristics of different types of building environments with IAQ to help understand the progress
and limitations of IAQ research worldwide. Therefore, this review of scientific studies presents a
broad spectrum of pollutants identified in both residential and commercial indoor environments,
highlighting the trends and gaps in IAQ research. Moreover, analysis of literature data enabled us
to assess the different IAQs in buildings located in different countries/regions, thus reflecting the
current global scientific understanding of IAQ. This review has the potential to benefit building
professionals by establishing indoor air regulations that account for all indoor contaminant sources
to create healthy and sustainable building environments.
Keywords
Indoor air pollution
Residential indoor pollutants
Office indoor pollutants
School indoor
pollutants
Influencing factors indoor