Indoor Air Standards in Japan

for Healthy Environment

Yoshika Sekine
School of Science, Tokai University, Japan
Simon Watts
BMS, Oxford Brookes University, UK

1
Do you think ?

**
GEISHA
SAMURAI
*
* The Last Samurai, Warner Bros.,2003
** Sayuri, Columbia Pictures Industry, 2005 2
Modern Japan

Economic power based on High-tech

Western style buildings

3
Why Japanese companies are so
good at making microchips?
„ M. Cross, New Scientist
(1990)
„ “…an important reason
for Japan’s domination of
the electronics market is
that its people have a
built-in “clean-room”
mentality. It comes from
the custom of changing
shoes when stepping
into another room.”

4
 Japanese climate
30 80

Relative humidity(%)
25 70
Temperature(℃)

20 60

15 50

10 Temp. 40

5 RH 30

0 20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month
5
SHOSO-IN Treasure House

An eighth century building specially constructed to

prevent the natural damage caused by Japanese
damp climate. The raised floor structure ensures
sufficient ventilation underneath to keep the inside dry.

6
Raised floor structure in modern house

“Clean Room” mentality

*http://www.misawa.co.jp/kodate/
7
“Sick House Syndrome”

„ “Sick Building Syndrome”

„ Majority of patients: housewives and
children in newly-built houses
„ Typical air pollutants
- Formaldehyde (HCHO)
- Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
„ Why it happened in a house and invited
a great social concern?

8
Renewal cycle of house

J 30

Ger 79

Fr 86

USA 103

UK 141

0 50 100 150
Renewal cycle (year)
Renewal cycle= No. of present houses /No. of newly-built houses per year
9
Indoor air pollution by chemicals
Saving energy
Air change rate
Air-tight < 0.2/h

Japanese Indoor air Chemical

house pollution intolerance

Use of chemicals
Volatilization of
chemicals
Large supply of houses
1970s～ 1990s～

10
Case of a victim in Tokyo

„ Middle aged single woman

„ In Apr.1999, moving to a newly
built apartment house in Tokyo
„ Health disorder
- eye mucus, throat pain,
bronchus irritation, headache,
unpleasant feeling with muscles,
diarrhea, fatigue and failure of
memory
„ Part-time librarian of a hospital
„ In Mar.2000, diagnosis at hospital
- Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

11
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
„ Medically unexplained symptom
- different from allergy, acute poisoning
„ Damage on nerve system etc.
„ Repeated and intermittent exposure to chemicals (non-
specific structure, property)
„ Cross-sensitization
- drugs, physical or psychological stress
„ In the case of Sick House Syndrome,
most patients have been forced to move to another
old house or replace building materials, sometimes
at their expense.

12
Efforts of reduction of chemicals
（２）炭入り枕

Bamboo charcoal Air cleaners Plants

Pillow filled Passive sampler

Door with air pathway with charcoal
13
Concentration of formaldehyde

0.25 30

Room temperature（℃）
25
HCHO conc.（ppm)

0.2
20
0.15
15
0.1 guideline
10
0.05 5

0 0
26 Sep. 7 Oct. 12 Oct.12 Mar. 18 May 21 Aug. 15 Oct.

1999 2002
14
Nation-wide survey

„ Questionnaire study for Japanese 4,000 adults (>

age 20) (Uchiyama,2003)
„ Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity
Inventory (QEESI)
- developed by C. Miller (1998)
„ Results
- respondents: 2,851
- suspected as chemical sensitivity: 0.74%
„ Underestimate?
- children: more sensitive to chemicals

15
Governmental countermeasures

„ Setting Indoor Air Quality Guidelines of Chemicals

(since 1997)
„ Emission control and installation of ventilation
system
- Standard Building Law, 2003
„ Monitoring of indoor air concentrations of
chemicals in newly-built houses
- Housing Quality Assurance Law , 2002
formaldehyde in buildings and school
- Building Sanitation Law,2002

16
Indoor Air Quality Guidelines
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan

date chemicals CAS No. concnetration

3
1997.6 formaldehyde 50-00-0 100µg／m （0.08ppm）
3
2000.6 toluene 108-88-3 260µg／m （0.07ppm）
3
xylene 1330-20-7 870µg／m （0.20ppm）
3
p -dichlorobenzene 106-46-7 240µg／m （0.04ppm）
3
2000.12 ethylbenzene 100-41-4 3800µg／m （0.88ppm）
3
styrene 100-42-5 220µg／m （0.05ppm）
3
1µg／m （0.07ppb）
chlorpyriphos 2921-88-2 3
0.1µg／m （0.007ppb）for infant
3
di-n-butylphthalate 84-74-2 220µg／m （0.02ppm）
3
TVOC 400µg／m *
3
2001.7.5 tetradecane 629-59-4 330µg／m （0.04ppm）
3
di-2-ethylhexylphthalate 84-66-2 120µg／m （7.6ppb）
3
diazinone 33-41-5 0.29µg／m （0.02ppb）
3
nonanal 124-19-6 41µg／m （7.0ppb）*
3
2002.1 acetaldehyde 75-07-0 48µg／m （0.03ppm）
3
fenobucarb 3766-81-2 33µg／m （3.8ppb）
( ): coverted at 25 degC, *Draft value
17
Formaldehyde (HCHO)

„ Emission source
adhesives used for
- plywood, MDF, particle board,
- vinyl wall paper
„ Indoor concentrations
Survey for 4,600 housing units
in 2000 (by MLIT)
- average 0.071ppm
- 27.3% of the units
> the guideline
Plywood used for flooring

18
The amended Building Standard Law

„ Enforced in July, 2003

„ Applied to every habitable room of all buildings
„ Regulation on Chlorpyrifos
- The use of Chlorpyrifos is banned
„ Regulation of Formaldehyde (HCHO)
- Area size of HCHO-emitting materials used for
interior finishing is restricted
- Installation of 24h-ventilation system is
mandatory to keep >0.5 ACH
19
HCHO-emitting materials

Formaldehyde Restrictions on
emitting building Emission rate interior finishing
materials materials
2
Type 4 up to 5µg/m h No restrictions
2
Type 3 5～20µg/m h Limited area
2
Type 2 20～120µg/m h
2
Type 1 over 120µg/m h Prohibited

Determined by a small chamber method (JIS A 1901,2003)

20
Housing Quality Assurance Law
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

„ IAQ : One of the housing performance

„ Measurement of indoor concentrations
included in fields of the Housing Performance
Indication System
„ By request of the house purchaser, house
builders have to make a monitoring of indoor
air conc. of chemicals in a newly-built house.
„ Sampling & analytical methods: Standard
protocol prepared by MOHLW
21
Monitoring of Chemicals

„ Target substances;
formaldehyde
toluene, xylene, styrene and
ethylbenzene
„ Standard sampling methods
1) Active samplings (30min)
2) Passive samplings (24h)
„ Passive samplers are commonly
used for IAQ monitoring
Passive samplers

22
IAQ standard for museum
substance limit values frequency
3
PM 0.15mg/m
CO2 1000ppm
CO 10ppm
bi-monthly
temperature 17 - 28℃
relative humidity 40 - 70 %
air stream 0.5m/s
in summer after
3
HCHO 0.1mg/m being built, reformed
and fitted up
*HCHO was added in 2002.

23
Yearly change of HCHO conc.
0.12 35

0.1 30
HCHO conc.(ppm)

exceedence(%)
Percentage of
25
0.08
20
0.06
15
0.04
10
0.02 5
0 0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Fiscal year

HCHO conc. exceedence

Indoor air concentrations of HCHO in newly-built houses (n=2,000)

http://www.skkm.org/houkoku/
24
Air-cleaning materials based on
“Clean-room” mentality

Air cleaner Air cleaning paint Air cleaning board

25
Removal of airborne chemicals
principle methods/materials
physisorption activated charcoal
porous ceramics
natural fibers
chemisorption inorganic compounds
organic compounds
extracts
decomposition photocatalyst
ozonolysis
catalytic decomposition
modified charcoal
plasma discharge
minus ions
activated oxygen
digestion bacterial
blocking resins

26
Passive air cleaning board
MnO2 filter
HCHO+2[O]→H2O+CO2
at room temperature

ＨＣＨＯ
H2O
+
CO2

Pre-filter

27
Manganese dioxide
600 600

500 500

Produced CO2(ppm)
HCHO conc.(ppm)

400 400

300 300

200 200

100 100

0 0
0 5 10 15 20
Time(h)

（MnO2:10g、PTFE Bag: 100L、21℃）

28
Possible pathways

HCHO(g)＋O(a)→ HCHOO(a) ……(1)

HCHOO(a)→ HCOO(a)＋H(a)
… … ( 2 )
HCOO(a)→ CO2（g）＋H（a）
… … ( 3 )
2 H （ a ） ＋ O （ a ） → H 2 O
… … ( 4 )
ＨＣＨＯ＋２Ｏ→ Ｈ ２ Ｏ＋ＣＯ ２
…Atmospheric Environment,
Sekine,Y, … (
36,5543(2002) 5 ) 29
Field tests
Toilet
i Air-cleaning board
Closet

Bath Bedroom(a)

0.8m2
Japanese Bedroom(b)
style room
1.5m2
1.0m2

1.5m2 1.0m2

Kitchen

i Newly built and unoccupied

Living dining room
apartment houses 1.0m2 air-cleaning board
total 9.8m2
i 3LDK(230m3）
air sampling site
i N=0.15/h
3.0m2 N
i May – Nov., 1998

Sekine,Y, et al. Atmospheric Environment, 35,2001(2001) 30

Variation of HCHO concentration
Indoor concentration of HCHO(ppm)

air conditioner off

house without the board

0.2

0.1 guideline

house with the board

0.0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210
Elapsed time(days)

31
Air cleaning materials with legal basis

In the Standard Building Law,

Exemption from the restrictions for HCHO
Habitable room
- equipped with centrally controlled air
conditioner
- in which the HCHO concentration can be
maintained at no more than 0.1mg/m3
Air-cleaning materials can be used with
approval of the Minister of MLIT

32
On-site colorimetric detector of HCHO

Put on the surface

HCHO Virgin sample

emitting
materials

Colorimetric reagent

Exposed to HCHO
33
User friendly technology

34
Find out Japanese businessman

35