This project aims to establish the first Australian indoor air monitoring program that identifies hazardous chemicals and their sources and trends under a changing climate. The project expects to provide key evidence to policymaking decisions including prioritising indoor chemical threats for regulation. The expected outcomes include the establishment of criteria for home recruitment for indoor pollution research, identification of new chemical pollutants and their sources, and assessment of their trends. The benefit is to advance the knowledge on indoor exposure research and raise awareness of the climate change conditions, addressing the government's priority research area of Environmental Change.
Research Impact
This project contributes to the establishment of a much-needed recruitment criteria system and standardised sampling tools for indoor chemical exposure assessment. In doing this, this project provides key scientific evidence for establishing national indoor environment quality monitoring networks and for making chemical regulation policy decisions. Such decisions are anticipated to see success in reducing indoor pollution, like the outdoor pollution reduction resulting from regulating outdoor emission sources.
In Australia, the health issues related to poor indoor air quality cost an estimation of $12 billion per year. Many trace organic pollutants have the potential to lead to long-term health effects, further increasing the economic burden on our country which is not easy to estimate and thus difficult to prepare for. This program will provide key evidence for chemical prioritisation for regulation, which has long-term economic benefits by reducing the exposure and potential risk to these chemicals
