Proactive Indoor Air Quality Survey Programs

Proactive Indoor Air Quality Surveys typically include: Periodic Sampling Surveys Duct Inspections Mechanical Hygiene Surveys Walk-through Surveys HVAC Assessments
Interested in eliminating and preventing occupant complaints and illness, and incurred expenses that are not in the budget? Then periodic proactive Indoor Air Quality surveys are your best choice, because they identify potential problems via walk-through surveys and proactive sampling. 1Source's streamlined approach uses the most current instrument technology and experienced staff to collect information throughout the day to assess the building's changing indoor environmental conditions. This allows our professionals to provide sound recommendations that ensure acceptable Indoor Air Quality and occupant satisfaction in buildings of any size. Need more information, or a proposal?  Please click on Information Request, or contact Harry M. Neill, CIH Vice President Indoor Air Quality and Industrial Hygiene at 888.873.9983, Ext. 15 or hneill@1ssh.com.

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Indoor Air Quality - It Pays to Be Proactive

Many organizations respond to indoor air quality (IAQ) issues only after they receive complaints, and sometimes not even then! Organizations using the “wait and see” approach often suffer considerable liabilities and losses, due to problems ranging from simple odor issues to building-related diseases to widespread mold problems. With colder weather upon us, companies and organizations would be wise to institute a proactive indoor air quality program.

The goal of a well-designed indoor air quality program is to identify the factors that cause or contribute to an acute or chronic degradation of a building’s indoor air quality, which in turn can negatively affect the occupants. While there are countless numbers and types of factors affecting indoor air quality, experience shows that typically these are

• Building systems
• Management/Administration
• Occupants
• Outside influences                 

Identifying the root causes of unacceptable IAQ is key to the prevention or elimination of sick-building syndrome and other building-related illnesses, which in turn reduces or eliminates the losses and liabilities associated with unacceptable indoor air quality.

Whether it is a school, office, healthcare, commercial, manufacturing, or research facility, liabilities from unacceptable IAQ can translate directly into financial losses. A successful and effective IAQ program will centralize the identified factors and provide a mechanism to control them.

The first step in developing a successful IAQ program is to understand the facility and who the responsible parties are, including employees and other firms that provide services such as HVAC maintenance, housekeeping, pest control etc. The next step is to understand the various building systems such as HVAC, plumbing, glazing, and electrical, and to conduct a detailed inventory of all equipment. Once these systems and their current levels of maintenance are fully understood, the task of detailed program and procedure development begins. This is the most important part of the program as most IAQ problems are directly related to building systems.

Preparation for emergencies, as well as planned and unplanned construction or renovation, are important because each has the potential to degrade air quality. For example, strong odors from some solvents can cause alarm among your employees. To minimize unnecessary concern, significant planning is needed before, during, and after a planned event.

Other components of an effective IAQ program include the development of performance criteria, response procedures, technology assessments, regulations and guidelines, policies and procedures, and benchmarking and auditing. Development and implementation of the program can take six to twelve months depending on the resources committed by the organization. For more information or to discuss implementing a proactive IAQ program for your organization, please contact Chris Schneider, CIH, President, at 610-524-5525 ext 14.

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Proactive Indoor Air Quality Surveys Save Budgets

As facility budgets tighten, managers are realizing that money spent for proactive indoor air quality is a smart investment. Here is a simple comparison to exemplify this point. Indoor air quality investigations conducted in response to employee complaints or illness clusters cost $3 to $10 per square foot of space investigated compared to 2 to 10 cents per square foot for a proactive indoor air quality survey. Basically, proactive surveys can be performed for 1/100th of the cost of an investigative survey conducted in response to an employee complaint. Not only is the initial dollar investment significantly less, but there is also a reduction in future liabilities such as emergency surveys, workers’ compensation cases and costs, responses to employee complaints, illness clusters, maintenance time and costs, and the most scarce resource – your time.

When conducted properly, proactive surveys identify issues such as broken system components, lack of filter changes and condensate pan maintenance (even though a contractor was being paid to provide those services), chilled water line insulation failure, mold growth, water intrusion, insufficient air flow, disconnected flex ductwork and more. Experienced indoor air quality scientists understand building systems and the potential impact of their problems and failures on the acceptability of indoor air quality as well as budgets.

What’s involved with a proactive indoor air quality survey? There are two approaches to these types of surveys. The first approach generally includes the use of direct-reading instruments to conduct a scan of readings at predetermined sampling points throughout the occupied space. When certain readings are outside acceptable guidelines, our scientists will assess the area and identify the cause. This enables conditions to be addressed accurately and rapidly, thereby eliminating a potential future issue.

The data collected by our scientists is entered into a database specific to your buildings. As additional data is entered from periodic surveys, the database will compare previous data to identify trends, which further helps our scientists to identify and eliminate potential issues.

The second approach to proactive indoor air quality is to conduct a detailed walk-through assessment of each space within a building. The assessment is conducted by a certified industrial hygienist (CIH) who uses previously gained knowledge of indoor air quality and building-related issues to visually identify potential problems with building systems and operations. In addition, the hygienist reviews HVAC equipment maintenance programs, water treatment, building design and system operations. Interestingly, no direct-reading instruments are used in the walk-through assessment and no samples are collected. This approach is a detailed assessment that identifies both current conditions as well as conditions that may develop.

It is important to point out that although investigative air quality surveys may resolve obvious current issues with the occupants of buildings, proactive indoor air quality surveys virtually eliminate indoor air quality concerns and complaints and their associated liabilities at a lower cost.

For additional information or to request a proposal, please contact Chris Schneider, CIH, President, at 888-873-9983, ext. 14 or at cschneider@1ssh.com.

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Emergency Response Planning

What you need to know to be prepared

Historically, Emergency Response Planning has been focused on major events such as fires, floods, explosions, power outages, and chemical spills. Although they can certainly be significant, they are not the most significant with regards to the impact on occupant safety and health. In recent years, facilities managers of offices, retail establishments, schools/universities, healthcare and other non-manufacturing facilities have become aware of additional unwanted or unplanned events. Unfortunately, specific plans to respond to these events often are never developed, and as a result, facilities managers find themselves unprepared to respond to the needs of management.

Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) should be very concise and address varied conditions. The first step in the development of your ERP is to conduct a standard GAP analysis that identifies predictable risks and events. Each predictable risk or event will have consequences that can be used to establish a response plan. The other very important part of understanding predictable risks and events is that doing so will permit the development and implementation of controls that will minimize or eliminate their occurrence. A side benefit of understanding and eliminating predictable risks is a reduction in insurance costs associated with workers’ compensation and property loss.

Examples of predictable risk or events to evaluate in the GAP analysis include:

• Asbestos and lead release incident
• Blood, vomit, and other body fluids incident
  
• Chemical spill incident
  
• Construction activity incident
  
• Domestic water release incident
  
• Domestic water contamination incident
  
• Fuel oil/gasoline spill
  
• Indoor air quality incident
  
• Legionellosis or other environmental disease incident
  
• Odor incident
  
• Outdoor air incident
  
• Pesticide and herbicide application incident
  
• PCB release incident
  
• Post-fire response
  
• Skin/rash/dermatitis incident
  
• Sewage spill release incident
  
• Storm and flood water incident
  
• Visible mold growth response

The second step is to develop the various scenarios and conditions that can lead to predicable risk events based on the GAP analysis. This information will assist planners and responders in better understanding conditions during an event, ensuring a more effective response.

The third step is to develop a list of site- and incident-specific responses for each predictable risk event. At a minimum, this list should include:

• Contact names and numbers, in order of importance
  
• Specific, immediate action steps to limit loss and business interruption
  
• Specific response steps to begin remediation and restoration efforts
  
• Development of communication to inform building occupants
  
• Plan to document effectiveness of response
  
• Sampling assessment to document levels of contaminants or microbiological organisms

The final step is training personnel in each of the ERPs to ensure that the plans are effective in responding to an incident. Training must be documented and conducted on an annual basis.

Please contact Chris Schneider, CIH, at 610.524.5525 extension 14 or  cschneider@1ssh.com to discuss emergency response plans for your facility.

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