In this article, an overview of sick house problems in current days is described. A series of health damage caused by the sick house problem is referred to as sick house syndrome (SHS), and it is usually considered that chemical substances such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are the main causative pollutants. Biological contaminants such as mites and molds are also considered as the agents in the broad sense. It is still difficult to establish a causal relationship between some causative substance and SHS. The guidelines of indoor air quality have been defined as measures against the sick house problem, but it should be necessary to consider further efforts to overcome the issues such as the emergence of new chemical substances and the sensitivity of each person.

Advisory Group Meetings on Sick House Issue : Indoor Air Pollution” has been held in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), and recommended guideline values for indoor air concentration of individual chemicals.

The guideline values for indoor air concentration mean that, given the current available scientific knowledge, no adverse health effects would occur in humans with the lifetime exposure of the chemical at the level of no more than the value. A report on scientific discussions leading to the revision of guideline values for indoor air concentration of xylene, di-n-butyl phthalate and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate was finalized on 17th January, 2019. This is a commentary on the guideline values for indoor air concentration.

People spend most of the day indoors. Therefore, control of the indoor air environment is important. The “odor” is an element of the air environment, and the intensity and quality of the indoor odor is also a factor determining the indoor air quality. The Architectural Institute of Japan proposed, as environmental standards, “Standard for control and maintenance of indoor odor (AIJES-A003-2005)” in 2005 and “Manual for indoor odor measurement method by olfaction (AIJES-A007-2010)” in 2010. In this paper introduces the revised background and purpose, and the main contents of the revised version (AIJES-A0003-2019).

In the case of sick house measurement, it is necessary to select an appropriate specification in accordance with the purpose of the measurement and the necessary result. There are many cases in which inappropriate specifications that do not match the purpose are adopted because of their complexity and difficulty in understanding, the specification decision involving various factors such as the related ministries and agencies, the type of buildings, measurement items, and sampling methods. This article introduces the outline of basic framework and measurement practice including indoor concentration guideline value of sick house measurement and standard sampling and measurement method, and arranges the information on the specification decision of sick house measurement.

We conducted a research on odor environment in a smoking room. The result showed that concentrations of suspended particulate matters and CO in the smoking room changed depending on the number of cigarettes being smoked, showing a clear correlation between them. On the other hand, odor intensity did not correlate significantly with the number of cigarettes smoked and odor intensity: 3 remained after 11 hours have passed even after smoking ended. Therefore, although the dust and CO concentrations can be used as indicators to evaluate air quality taking odor into account in and around smoking rooms, careful consideration is required when they are used in the non-smoking condition.