The use of wood preservatives inside houses may result in measurable aerial concentrations of active ingredients. These airborne contaminants may be inhaled by the inhabitants over periods lasting from a couple of days to several months. To assess the potential health hazard of preservative residues in the air, various risk-assessment models have been worked out. Three schemes, currently used by the European health authorities, are discussed in this paper. They are based on the saturated air vapour concentration, the volatilization rate measured in laboratory experiments and the aerial concentrations determined in practice. For each model various safety margins can be calculated. These are based on e.g. the subchronic inhalation toxicity, the acceptable daily intake and the acceptable aerial concentration of the insecticides and fungicides used in wood preservatives. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of these health- assessments, a case study has been carried out with the fungicides azaconazole and propiconazole, developed by Janssen Pharmaceutica - Belgium.

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