Larissa Schiavo explores the evolution of indoor air quality from prehistory to modern times. This brief history reveals how our understanding of indoor air quality has progressed and why it remains a critical health issue today. We might be tempted to think that air quality was not an issue before industrial times, but that does not apply to indoor air, because of “the carcinogenic byproduct of burned wood, dung, and other fuel biomasses.”
Odd as it may sound, the loudspeaker, microphone, and amplifier played a crucial role in improving indoor air. Before voice amplification systems, people relied on acoustics to make themselves heard. In huge spaces like theatres, this often involved enclosure and the nixing of windows. At best, this led to stuffy, still air shared by too many people. At worst, such as in the U.K. Houses of Parliament and the U.S. Capitol, it meant hundreds of men in full suits in the heat of summer, trying not to pass out and inadvertently infecting one another with airborne diseases.
For the first time in history, the built environment could withstand the tyranny of climate. People could sit inside a fully enclosed space in the summer with no risk of heatstroke. Heat-related mortality decreased in cities like New York as air conditioning became more prevalent. The air in rooms without direct window access no longer stagnated. The usable square footage in simpler, cheaper-to-build floor plans and taller skyscrapers increased, and hotter regions like the American Southwest and Southeast opened to would-be residents.