Conference on biometeorological consequences of environmental controls. Housing: introductory remarks.

About a decade ago I wrote a review of the relations of indoor to outdoor atmospheric conditions (1). In the interval, the major substantive contributions in this field have been in the air quality field. A comprehensive review of this area, covering the entire literature since the 1930's has been published by EPA (2). Another rather interesting monograph has just appeared, in which the meteorotropic effects of pressure fluctuations of relatively high frequency on indoor workers in Switzerland are reinvestigated within the framework of research on F6hn effects (3). Among the important findings is that the rapid pressure fluctuations penetrate indoors, irrespective of whether or not a room is airconditioned, and that there exists a notable correlation between the amplitudes of such fluctuations and the frequency of health complaints of a sizable group of persons working in a large building. It may be useful at this point to recall the penetration of external meteorological variables indoors, their alteration by the man's protective structures, and their deliberate or inadvertent modification, as shown in Table 1. The need for energy conservation also makes it expedient to review the desirable, or at least tolerable, indoor environment. There have been in the past many cases when dwellings and offices were overheated and