ISO 16000-1:2004 is intended to aid the planning of indoor pollution monitoring.

Before a sampling strategy is devised for indoor air monitoring, it is necessary to clarify for what purposes, when, where, how often and over what periods of time monitoring is to be performed. The answers to these questions depend, in particular, on a number of special characteristics of the indoor environments, on the objective of the measurement and, finally, on the environment to be measured. ISO 16000-1:2004 deals with the significance of these factors and offers suggestions on how to develop a suitable sampling strategy.

ISO 16000-1:2004 is applicable to indoor environments such as dwellings having living rooms, bedrooms, do-it-yourself rooms, recreation rooms and cellars, kitchens and bathrooms; workrooms or work places in buildings which are not subject to health and safety inspections in regard to air pollutants (for example, offices, sales premises); public buildings (for example hospitals, schools, kindergartens, sports halls, libraries, restaurants and bars, theatres, cinemas and other function rooms), and also cabins of vehicles.