Dataset on concentrations of volatile organic compounds in indoor environments of offices, educational and residential buildings in the European Union between 2010 and 2023

Indoor air pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), include a range of hazardous substances that can accumulate in the indoor environments. As individuals spend 80-90 % of their daily time indoors, chronic exposure to VOCs has been recognised as an important public health concern. Therefore, measuring the concentration of indoor air pollutants is essential for improving indoor air quality and thereby reducing the associated burden of disease. Our objective was to generate a dataset on concentrations of VOCs measured in offices and in educational and residential buildings in the member states of the European Union between 2010 and 2023. Data were collected by means of systematic literature searches, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The search was carried out in the PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. In addition to data on VOC levels, information on types of buildings, seasons when the measurements were performed, heating and ventilation systems, humidity and temperature at the sampling points, and methods used for sampling and analysis was collected. The dataset contains information on 18 VOCs and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) from 101 original research papers. It consists of 19 worksheets, each with 46 columns, and the number of rows varies depending on the number of articles per VOC/TVOC, ranging from 11 to 576 rows. This dataset will be of use to public health professionals interested in using systematically collected data on VOC levels and corresponding reference concentrations to estimate the health risks associated with exposure to VOCs.