National Housing Campaign 1

The national housing campaign conducted by the Inland Air Quality Observatory (OQAI) over the period from September 2003 to December 2005 makes it possible to draw up an initial report on indoor air quality representative of the situation of the 24 million main residences in mainland France. The parameters were chosen on the basis of their impact on air quality or comfort, their dangerousness and their frequency of occurrence: carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, particles, radon, allergens from dogs, cats, mites, gamma radiation, carbon dioxide, temperature, relative humidity (Mosqueron and Nedellec, 2002, https://www.oqai.fr/media/reports/hierarchisation-sanitary-of-parameters-measures-in-batteries-by-l-observatory-of-quality-of-air-interior). For the most part, these parameters are different from those usually used to characterise outdoor air quality because they reflect the presence of multiple potential sources of indoor pollution: materials, equipment, furniture, household products, human activity, outdoor environment, etc. Detailed information was also collected on the technical characteristics of dwellings and their environment, as well as on households, their activities and the time spent in contact with pollution. The data were collected in 567 main residences (1,612 individuals surveyed) spread over 50 departments and 74 municipalities of mainland France, over a period of one week, inside the dwellings, in the garages communicating with the dwelling (where they existed) and outside. There is a specificity of indoor air quality compared to outdoor air quality which is expressed in particular by the presence of certain substances not observed outdoors or by significantly higher concentrations indoors. The pollutants targeted are present at quantifiable levels in the majority of dwellings in the park. The distribution of organic chemical pollution is not homogeneous in the park. Only a minority of dwellings (9%) have very high concentrations for several pollutants simultaneously; Conversely, 45% of dwellings have very low levels of concentrations for all the pollutants measured. Pollutant by pollutant, from 5 to 30% of dwellings have values significantly higher than the concentrations found on average in the park. The details of the surveys, the housing sampling procedure, the quality assurance elements and the detailed results of this campaign can be found in the report published online by the OQAI (Kirchner et al., 2007, https://www.oqai.fr/en/media/rapports/1-log-cnl1-etat-qai ).