More than 60 percent of people with children living at home would spend discretionary income on products or services to improve indoor air quality in their homes, according to the results of a nationwide survey conducted early this month for Chelsea Group of Itasca, Ill., a leading indoor air quality strategic consulting company, by Market Facts, an international market research firm in Arlington Heights, Ill.

"This landmark survey - the most recent of Chelsea Group's ongoing surveys on consumer perceptions about indoor air quality - not only shows that the majority of Americans are concerned about indoor air quality, but that they also are willing to put their money where their mouth is," said George Benda, Chairman and CEO of Chelsea Group, Ltd.

Overall concern for indoor air quality is at an all-time high, he said. More than 80 percent of homeowners participating in the survey think that the quality of air in their homes is very important. Also, 75 percent of people surveyed who are employed fulltime ranked the quality of air at work as very important. In both home and the workplace, more than 95 percent of those surveyed think that the quality of the air is somewhat or very important, he said.

"These numbers are much higher than national surveys conducted as recently as the end of 1997, when a study sponsored by Underwriters Laboratory (UL) showed that about 75 percent of those surveyed thought indoor air quality was somewhat or very important," Benda said.

During the survey, 1,000 adults were interviewed by telephone over a three-day period. Participants were selected from all available residential telephone numbers in the contiguous United States, using a random sampling technique.