Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
IAQ in Large and Commercial Buildings
Indoor air quality (IAQ) problems are not limited to homes. In fact, many office buildings have significant air pollution sources. Some of these buildings may be inadequately ventilated. For example, mechanical ventilation systems may not be designed or operated to provide adequate amounts of outdoor air. Finally, people generally have less control over the indoor environment in their offices than they do in their homes. As a result, there has been an increase in the incidence of reported health problems.
Large Building Guidance on Indoor Air Quality - The Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning
Guidance for achieving enhanced indoor air quality (IAQ) in large buildings. The
Guide provides strategies needed to achieve good IAQ using proven technologies
and without significantly increasing costs.
Available on book and CD, the Guide describes 40 strategies for achieving critical IAQ objectives related to moisture management, ventilation, filtration and air cleaning and source control. It also highlights how design and construction teams can work together to ensure good IAQ strategies are incorporated from initial design through project completion. Find out how to get a summary or a free copy of the document at www.ashrae.org/resources--publications/bookstore/indoor-air-quality-guide . A primer on the Indoor Air Quality Guide appears in the May 2010 ASHRAE Journal. A PDF of the article is available via the link above.
IAQ Building Education and Assessment Model (I-BEAM)
Building Assessment, Survey and Evaluation Study (BASE)
The BASE raw dataset is available. Using the data will require familiarity in working with a complex dataset characterizing public and commercial office buildings in the U.S. with respect to IAQ and occupant perceptions. Get the BASE data on CD-ROM
EPA's Green Building Portal - This site is a gateway to many different EPA programs to improve the environmental impacts of building and development. These include Energy Star, Water Efficiency, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, and more. www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/
Developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with funding support from EPA, the IAQ Scientific Findings Resource Bank is a resource for public health professionals, building professionals, and others who seek scientific information about the effects of IAQ on people’s health or work performance.
The IAQ Scientific Findings Resource Bank provides information summarizing the state of scientific knowledge about the relationships between people’s health and productivity and the IAQ conditions or associated building characteristics in which the people work or reside. This web site also provides links for downloading published journal articles that were developed under the project. Learn more at www.iaqscience.lbl.gov
More Resources/Studies/Research
Building Air Quality: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Managers
Building Air Quality Action Plan
Energy Cost and IAQ Performance of Ventilation Systems and Controls Modeling Study
Homeland Security and the Indoor Environment
In 2002, the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) formed the Interagency Workgroup on Building Air Protection which includes representatives from agencies across the Federal government. EPA is the Executive Secretariat of this Workgroup which is chaired by OHS. One of the first tasks of the Workgroup was to produce guidance to building owners and managers that would contain a set of recommendations they could implement now to better protect the indoor environments of their buildings from terrorist threats. Go to the resource page on Homeland Security.