AIRMEX (the 'European Indoor Air Monitoring and Exposure Assessment Project')

Improved health is a priority for the EU, and this is outlined in the European Environment and Health Action Plan (2004-2010) which focuses on determining what impact environmental factors have on human health. This action plan will give the EU the information it needs to forge stronger collaboration between stakeholders in the environment, health and health related research fields.

As one of several EU funded research projects, the European Indoor Air Monitoring and Exposure Assessment Project (AIRMEX) study monitored indoor, outdoor and individual exposure to selected chemical compounds (aromatics, carbonyls, terpenes and other volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)) around Europe.  A total of ca. 1000 samples were taken from public buildings, schools/kindergartens, individual volunteers and the homes of those volunteers.

For more details, see the left-menu items of this web section.

The outcomes of the AIRMEX Project are now delivered in a public database representing a basic open data source for all researchers in the EU.

This scientific article outlines the results of the project:

Geiss, O., Giannopoulos, G., Tirendi, S., Barrero-Moreno, J., Larsen, B.R., Kotzias, D.
The AIRMEX study - VOC measurements in public buildings and schools/kindergartens in eleven European cities: Statistical analysis of the data
Atmospheric Environment, 45 (2011) 3676-3684

Kotzias, D., Geiss, O., Tirendi, S. et al. (2009) Exposure to multiple air contaminants in public buildings, schools and kindergartens – the European indoor air monitoring and exposure assessment (AIRMEX) study. Full text: Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 18 (5a): 670 – 681.

Contact: pilar.aguar@ec.europa.eu