ABSTRACT
Public interest in air quality has risen in the past year while this book was being written. Constant press and TV reports about external air pollution have even mentioned indoor air problems and tabloid newspapers have issued dire warnings about scented candles, diesel cars and the return of London smog. However, much of this reporting may have created greater confusion in the minds of professionals and public, rather than raising awareness of pollution risks. This book attempts to unravel the issues in a way that allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about the issues. It builds on the approach we adopted in the 1990s when we produced the Green Building Handbook (GBH)2 in which we attempted to analyse and explain what information was available about the environmental and health risks of building materials and construction methods. This approach was popular with architects and others because it didn’t preach or lay down dogmatic answers, though it was not popular with a number of trade organisations such as the British Plastics Federation and similar bodies.
