Indoor HCHO concentrations are influenced by various factors, e.g., age of buildings, thermal conditions, ventilation rates and furniture. The sick syndrome effect on occupants caused by chemical compounds is usually observed in the case of comparatively new buildings. It is reported, however, that high chemical compound concentrations are often measured in buildings with inadequate ventilation rates several years after construction. The authors conducted measurement of HCHO concentrations in a conference room which has been used infrequently in the six years since its building. There are many tables and chairs in the room and in them a lot of synthetic bond was used, and the floors is covered with an acrylic resin carpet. Experiments were carried out during summer and winter. We intended to verify the usefulness of air-conditioner for removing indoor HCHO compounds as residue drain water in summer. From the experiment results it is evident that the draining by the air-conditioner was helpful in lowering indoor HCHO levels compared to non air-conditioned periods. HCHO concentrations levels did not increase to such high levels while heating the room after a long interval compared to frequent intervals in winter.

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Thermal sensation experiments on subjects were carried out in Sapporo in order to evaluate outdoor environments. The evaluation method for an outdoor thermal environment is verified by using operative temperature, standard operative temperature and standard new effective temperature based on effective radiant temperature indicating the effect of solar radiation. Mean skin temperatures of the human body correlated with thermal sensations, better within individuals than in combined data for all subjects. Comparing the standard operative temperature with the operative temperature, the thermal sensation correlated with the former better than the latter. This result means the effective radiant temperature can indicate the effect of solar radiation. Furthermore, the SET* values including the effect of solar radiation correlated well with thermal sensation.

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It is important to clarify the applicable range and the characteristics of thermal indices for designing and evaluating a thermal environment. In this paper, from the viewpoints of thermal physiology, two indices stipulated by ISO, i.e., ISO-7933 for hot environments and ISO-11079 for cold-environments based on thermal equilibrium of the human body, were verified. The human model on ISO-7933 expressed in a linear multiple regression formula cannot always indicate the relationship between thermal physical states and sweat secretion in man. Therefore, this paper proposes that the sweat rate should be evaluated based on the thermal physiological state rather than the thermal equilibrium remainder. In addition, in order to make a new index based on the ISO-7933 concept, which deals with heat storage and dehydration as a measure for evaluation, the authors propose to deal with increase in body enthalpy and sweat secretion as they simultaneously occur. In an analysis of ISO-11079, a similarity is seen between IREQ (Required Clothing Insulation) for general cooling and the WCI (Wind Chill Index) for local cooling in outdoor environments from the viewpoint of thermal physiological engineering interpretation. Considering the scope of application of WCI stated in ISO-11079, it is proposed that thresholds of locally unpleasant or critical states be applied as the values for skin temperature in WCI calculations.

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