indoor air quality

n big cities the air outside is unhealthy compared to indoor air.  'Shelter in place',  'stay indoors' are two regular warnings issued when there's a toxic release from some manufacturing plant. AND - between summertime smoke, and wintertime closed windows - how good is your indoor air quality (IAQ) ?

But the real indoor air culprit is your own furniture, especially somehtings that's less than a year old. 

t's obvious to most that wall-to-wall carpeting, paints+sealers and glues+cements are the biggest culprits in poor indoor air quality.  A close second goes to furniture, especially upholstered ones.  Then there are dozens of personal choices on cleaning products, laundry, drapes, etc.. All of these can lead to poor indoor air quality with resultant health issues. Luckily we have many choices - especially in using Living Energies to clean up our indoor air. 

 here's a great table about some common materials' VOC off-gassing:

Concentrations and Emission Rates of VOCs for Common Materials

Building Material	VOC Concentration, mg/m3	VOC Emission Rate, mg/m2h
Concrete with water-based form-release agent	0.018	0.003
Acrylic latex paint	2.00	0.43
Epoxy, clear floor varnish	5.45	1.3
Felt carpet	1.95	0.080
Gypsum board	N/A	0.026
Linoleum	5.19	0.22
Particle board	N/A	2.0
Plastic silicone sealer	77.9	26.0
Plywood paneling	N/A	1.0
Putty strips	1.38	0.34
PVA glue cement	57.8	10.2
Sheet vinyl flooring	54.8	2.3
Silicone caulk	N/A	<2.0
Water-based EVA wall and floor glue	1,410.0	271.0

 Cleaning up Indoor air

 #1 on the list is plenty of fresh air exchanges.  However, if you are in a big city, that might not be a good idea.  So #2 is to have hard floors (preferably the concrete type - avoid vinyl!) and use throw rugs.
my preference
Concrete floors - for those who have visited WinSol ya'll know then thin floor slabs with thin granite slabs or glass shards.  Yeah - i know the footprint of making concrete is high, but so is its life, and the overall LCA (life cycle assessment) is pretty low AND no VOC off gassing.  Here's a Canadian excerpt about concrete floors:
"Untreated concrete does not off-gas after curing, but additives such as formaldehyde, petroleum oils and detergents may off gas."

Using Living Energies for good IAQ:
Houseplants - lots of them - are the best way to improve your indoor air quality. I am planning whole vertical walls of indoor plants for the learning center, and am increasing the main WinSol houseplants.  I've found over the years that spider plants seem to prosper with minimal care, and can take 20F winter temperatures. 

Another way to clean up indoor air is with water.  Flowing water, misting, etc. will attract dust molecules and take them out of the air. The ultimate is combining indoor plants with flowing water:

"...Living Walls offers a natural solution. Rather than introducing large amounts of so-called fresh air from outside, we incorporate into the building itself the features responsible for making outdoor air fresh in the first place. Basically, dirty air, drawn in from indoor space, makes close contact with the constantly-flowing water within the wall. Pollutants are moved from air to water - all the while improving air quality. Once dissolved into the water, pollutants are attacked by biological components in the wall itself, and are metabolized into a harmless state. It is important to realize that it is the biological components within the wall and not the green plants themselves (which facilitate the process) which are cleaning the air.  The Living Wall has the potential to generate clean indoor air for as little as 10% of the energy required to bring the same amount of outside air into the building during the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Passing the circulating air within the building through a Living Wall is an alternative means of refreshing the indoor air without bringing new expensive outside air into the building."