Safety and Security of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sick buildings throughout the nation have been vacated, demolished, or totally refurbished at costs that often exceed the original cost of the building because of indoor air quality (IAQ) issues. A valuable commercial building in South Florida sits vacant today because it's contaminated with anthrax. New exclusions are appearing on insurance contracts for architects, engineers, and contractors, as well as homeowners—mold, an IAQ issue. IAQ is today becoming one of the biggest concerns of a building's occupants, its owners, and its managers, as well as architects, engineers, and the construction industry. The recent increase in litigation related to mold, an IAQ issue, combined with the September 11th attacks and the bioterrorism events of the following October, has raised the issue of building air quality safety to the highest level. While IAQ and mold issues are today not regulated by governmental agencies, building owners, managers, design professionals, and constructors are being held responsible for the health and safety of the air quality in buildings. Both OSHA and EPA have established guidelines and recommendations related to IAQ issues, and several organizations, including CDC, NIOSH, and USACE, are in the process of developing guidelines for “protecting” a building's indoor air quality. Today, it is absolutely essential that those responsible for buildings take actions to ensure that workplace air quality is maintained so as to be safe and secure from health hazards. Events of 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax incidents, combined with the aging of our buildings and litigation related to mold and other IAQ issues, have made it apparent that the air quality in our buildings is not as safe and secure as it should be. Given the present status of IAQ litigation and the heightened concerns of terrorism and other extreme incidents which could impact a building's air quality, action is required. Unfortunately, while a great deal of attention is being focused on the general infrastructure and responder training since 9/11, little attention is being focused on protection of our workplace's most critical asset—its people and the air they breathe in the workplace. In order to fully address the health and safety of a building's air quality, an indoor or building air quality safety program is required. An IAQ safety program would be expected to provide the engineering controls and systems capable of protecting a building's air quality, in addition to the policies and training procedures of building operators, maintenance personnel, managers, and occupants in maintaining safe air quality in buildings and initiating appropriate response actions to protect occupants in the event of an IAQ incident or threat. This article, while presenting information on addressing the typical issues related to IAQ concerns, discusses protecting the air quality in buildings and developing the safety programs, plans, and procedures along with the engineering controls necessary to help ensure the health and safety of air quality in buildings. The proactive and protective recommendations discussed in this article, starting with the installation of a dedicated outdoor air system designed to pre-condition the fresh air that enters a building, and development of an IAQ safety program can be readily implemented in any C & I facility. The concept of an IAQ safety program is not new. Some forward-thinking organizations have implemented such plans, even though it is not required by regulatory authorities (OSHA, EPA, or AHJs). The IAQ safety program recommended herein is intended to address conventional IAQ issues of mold, ventilation, and contamination, etc., but goes a step further and addresses the vulnerability of the BAQ from unexpected incidents including spills, fires, explosions or chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) issues which, in our present environment, must be addressed. This article also describes a dedicated outdoor air system intended to function as a BAQ protection system (building air quality protection system) designed to pre-treat all the fresh air to a building and protect a building's air quality from external sources of contamination. The BAQ protection system, a dedicated outdoor air system which functions as an outdoor air pre-treatment system with control dampers and associated interlocks capable of sealing the building's outdoor air ducts for protection, serves to address humidity levels and building pressurization in both new and existing buildings. The BAQ protection system significantly reduces HVAC system energy for both heating and cooling by eliminating the latent (moisture) load from the building's HVAC system. This system has been identified as one of the most promising energy savings technology by USDOE.