Standard or body
World Health Organization (WHO)
Also: WHO, WHO air quality guidelines, AQG
The United Nations health agency whose air quality guidelines are the global health-based reference: the 2021 global air quality guidelines (particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide), the 2010 indoor air quality guidelines for selected pollutants, and the 2009 guidelines on dampness and mould.
Why it matters indoors
WHO guideline values are not laws; they state the concentrations below which the evidence shows no or minimal health effects, and national regulators decide how far to follow them. They are the strictest widely used values and the ones Coridum uses as the health benchmark in every limits table, with interim targets for regions far above them. WHO also publishes the Housing and health guidelines (2018) covering indoor temperature and crowding, and the Handbook on indoor radon (2009).
Identifiers
- MeSH
- D014944
In the literature
- Particulate matter pollution and health impacts in six North African countries… (2024). European Journal of Development Studies. doi:10.24018/ejdevelop.2024.4.3.350 CKB 0730
- Multi-pollutant indoor air quality, ventilation, and cognitive status among nursing home residents with dementia: a pilot cross-sectional environmental assessment in Oklahoma, USA (2026). doi:10.55092/ijee20260012 CKB 1046
- Assessment of health risks from exposure to indoor volatile organic compounds in European educational buildings (2026). Sci Rep. doi:10.1038/s41598-026-37072-2 CKB 1196
Studies in the Coridum Knowledge Base in which this term is used. The definition follows standard usage in WHO, ISO and textbook sources; it is not quoted from these papers.
CKB = document number in the Coridum Knowledge Base, our curated library of peer-reviewed studies. Follow the DOI for the original paper.
Cite this page
Coridum Research. World Health Organization (WHO). Coridum Knowledge G-0085, 5 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0085/