What if you live in an apartment?

Apartments can have the same indoor air problems as single-family homes because many of the pollution sources, such as the interior building materials, furnishings and household products, are similar. Indoor air problems similar to those in offices are caused by such sources as contaminated ventilation systems, improperly placed outdoor air intakes or maintenance activities.

Solutions to air quality problems in apartments, as in homes and offices, involve such actions as:

• eliminating or controlling the sources of pollution
• increasing ventilation
• installing air cleaning devices

Often a resident can take the appropriate action to improve the indoor air quality by removing a source, altering an activity, unblocking an air supply vent, or opening a window to temporarily increase the ventilation; in other cases, however, only the building owner or manager is in a position to remedy the problem.

• Read more about ways to improve the indoor air quality of your building.
• You can encourage building management to follow guidance contained in EPA's Integrated Building Evaluation and Assessment (I-BEAM) Tool.

Additional Resources

• National Apartment AssociationExit
  • Phone: (703) 518-6141 / Fax: (703) 248-9440
• Apartment and Landlord AssociationsExit
• A Radon Guide for Tenants
  • This guide, created by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) with EPA's review, is for people who rent their apartments or houses. The guide explains what radon is, and how to find out if there is a radon problem in your home. The guide also talks about what you can do if there are high radon levels in your home.
• EPA's Mold site
• EPA's Radon site