Optical fiber sensors to detect volatile organic compound in sick building syndrome applications

Health issues, such as Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), are being taken into account in new constructions, houses and several non industrial environments. SBS produces several manifestations, for example, respiratory irritative symptoms, headache and fatigue. It is caused by several factors. Most of them are related with the air quality, and the presence of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), among other parameters. It is obvious that is very important to keep these parameters under control, and so, the development of new devices to achieve this is more and more interesting during last few years. Some important features using sensors for this application are robustness, easy installation, on line and real time use. Although there are electronic devices already available, optical fiber sensors offer all the performances mentioned before, as well as other ones exclusive of this technology: sensors networking and electromagnetic immunity mainly. In this work, we will show a review about the SBS aim, the sensing architectures of optical fiber technology, and the opportunities that it has in this increasing market niche.