The six parameters
Why these six
They are the parameters a standard indoor air quality monitor reports, and they are the ones Dubai Municipality assesses. Each page gives the WHO position, the actual DM figure with its table reference, what the pollutant does to health, and what to do about it.
Every Dubai figure on these pages comes from DM-HSD-GU119-IAQ, Technical Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality for Healthy Life, Version 3, issued 10 July 2024, published by Dubai Municipality. Not from a secondary source. Several widely repeated UAE figures are wrong, and where that is the case we say so and give the table reference.
The four figures most sites get wrong
- CO₂ is 800 ppm over 8 hours, not the 1000 ppm quoted almost everywhere
- PM10 is 150 µg/m³ over 24 hours. The 8-hour figure is 100 µg/m³
- TVOC is 300 µg/m³ for new buildings and 0.6 mg/m³ for existing ones. They are tested against different tables
- Formaldehyde is 0.01 ppm over 8 hours. The 0.08 ppm figure everyone cites is the 30-minute short-term limit
New buildings and existing buildings are assessed differently
Dubai Municipality applies Table 1 to new buildings tested before occupancy, and Table 2 to existing occupied buildings. TVOC, CO₂ and bacterial count limits all differ between them. A developer handing over a tower and a landlord with a ten-year-old building are not being measured against the same numbers.
What formal compliance requires
- 8-hour sampling, or an accepted surrogate of half-hour measurements across four time slots
- Testing by a laboratory accredited by the Emirates International Accreditation Centre
- Calibrated instruments with certificates retained for inspection
- Prescribed probe positions and a minimum number of sampling points by floor area
- A full audit at least every two years during normal operation
A consumer monitor is useful for early warning and trend detection. It is not evidence of compliance, and we will tell you which one you need rather than selling you the other.
Need this equipment serviced?
Inspection first, fixed written price before any work begins, and a photo report on completion.