Study: Urban office buildings pump out volatile chemicals to the outdoors, comparable to traffic emissions

A research team led by Brandon Boor, associate professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, published a new study in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability that states modern buildings continually release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to outdoor air and are likely to be an important contributor to the VOC burden of the urban atmosphere. The team conducted direct measurements of outdoor-indoor air pollutant exchange in a high-performance office building using state-of-the-art air quality instrumentation and an advanced building automation platform.

“We traditionally think of filtering the outdoor air entering our buildings. Based on the findings of our study, we now need to consider cleaning the air leaving our offices, homes and schools to reduce VOC emissions to the outdoor environment,” Boor said.

Read more on the Lyles School of Civil Engineering website.

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