Much of our lives is spent indoors where we live, work, and play. What is in the air we breathe indoors affects our health and quality of life. Some common pollutants that could be present in indoor air include carbon monoxide, radon, mold, asbestos, formaldehyde, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A number of projects on Public Lab have explored indoor air quality, monitoring and remediation. Check out the materials below, follow the tag indoor-air-quality and add your materials to this topic. ### Questions [questions:indoor-air-quality] ### Activities [activities:indoor-air-quality] ### Research notes [notes:indoor-air-quality!question:indoor-air-quality] ### Wikis All wiki pages relating to air quality: [wikis:indoor-air-quality] ### Regulations on indoor air quality #### Federal regulations Many of us spend a large portion of our time indoors, and yet indoor air quality remains largely unregulated at the federal level in the US [[1](https://www.epa.gov/regulatory-information-topic/regulatory-information-topic-air#indoorair)]. For office buildings and other workplaces, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets rules on ventilation and some air pollutants [[2](https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/)], but there are no federal regulatory standards on indoor air quality for these spaces. In addition, the air we breathe inside our schools [[3](https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/are-schools-required-follow-epas-iaq-tools-schools-guidance)], homes, and apartment buildings also lacks federal air quality standards, leaving individual states to set their own rules. Sources: 1. [https://www.epa.gov/regulatory-information-topic/regulatory-information-topic-air#indoorair](https://www.epa.gov/regulatory-information-topic/regulatory-information-topic-air#indoorair) 2. [https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/ ](https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/) 3. [https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/are-schools-required-follow-epas-iaq-tools-schools-guidance](https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/are-schools-required-follow-epas-iaq-tools-schools-guidance) #### Local, tribal, or state regulations The Environmental Law Institute maintains a searchable database of indoor air quality laws in individual US states here: [https://www.eli.org/buildings/database-state-indoor-air-quality-laws](https://www.eli.org/buildings/database-state-indoor-air-quality-laws) The US Environmental Protection Agency provides links to state, tribal, and regional indoor air quality programs here: [https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/epa-regional-office-and-state-indoor-air-quality-information ](https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/epa-regional-office-and-state-indoor-air-quality-information)...
| Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| liz | "Hi everyone, thank you for such a beautifully documented activity! I'm going to print this out on oversized paper so that there's room to write tra..." | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
| liz | "Hi @mprof9, if you post your project following the template above, people can start asking questions and collaborating! sensor calibration is a big..." | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
| NickyName | "Is there any chance to know the exact proportion of the diameter/size of the planter/jar and the amount of activated charcoal to make it work? Tha..." | Read more » | over 6 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | " @nshapiro has marked gretchengehrke as a co-author. " | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| localman | "@nshapiro I went the lazy route and grabbed a few of the Plant Air Purifiers I'd be down to measure my levels - will likely revisit building my ow..." | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| zengirl2 | "@stevie Wow, that is exciting. I'm almost picturing pomander balls of this stuff hanging around. " | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| stevie | "Here's an answer coming in from Ann Marie Carlton who works with an Atmospheric Multiphase Chemistry Research Group at University of California, Ir..." | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "Hi @localman, apologies for any confusion. Vertical (facing upwards close to the rootball) is ideal. It depends on how big your planter is whether ..." | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| Bobibi | "Yes. Biochar in manure, compost, and anaerobic digesters helps eliminate odors as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions. " | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| liz | "@liz awards a barnstar to haines241 for their awesome contribution! " | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| warren | "Wow, that's great -- if you'd like to build out more about it, feel free to upload more photos and potentially create a page about it using one of ..." | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| mprof9 | "Hi Warren. Yes, this is a project of mine. This is currently run at home, sampling ambient air outside on my terrace. Since I live in a small villa..." | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| warren | "Hi, this is interesting! Is it your project? " | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| localman | "@nshapiro - Thanks for getting back to us! To clarify: a vertical (outflow facing upwards) or horizontal (outflow facing toward the root ball) are ..." | Read more » | almost 7 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "Thanks all! Looks like I'm late to some important comments. Thanks, @warren. I've updated the note per both of your requests. @Odie91that's a gre..." | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| localman | "Excellent project! I've been diving into Wolverton's studies (alongside all other phyto-remediation studies) to get an idea of what options I have ..." | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| warren | "Just another note here that could be helpful -- this has a collection of reusable UI design patterns they call "blocks" that I thought were really ..." | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "Thinking about the history of the science behind the kit (photo by Merle Ibach): " | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "Here are a couple more images of the event. The mesh assembly table: The root cleaning station: " | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "Here are all the differnt forms of instructions (different sizes and web or print usage): kit_instructions-web_A4.pdf kit_instructions-web_A3.p..." | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| warren | " Smart-Forms_wireframes-cropped.psd I guess PSDs don't upload correctly in the rich editor but they work in comments-- good for now, i guess? " | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "its pretty small. the file is linked in the text, here's the link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SbZog5bou9gsCbv5kqFMKwvD6QCCG_Kl/view Thank you! " | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| warren | "Hi, how big is the file? We can host it on one of our servers; can you share the drive link for now? " | Read more » | about 7 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "hi @warren! how do i upload Kevin's .psd to PL.org and link to there so that he can not worry about accidentally breaking the link to his drive in ..." | Read more » | about 7 years ago |