Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Introduction

One of the most important aspects of any building is the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). While you can toil away and make the most beautiful design— if the indoor air quality is poor, it affects the basic health of every individual and will eventually make the building not habitable, and/or cost huge sums of money to correct.

Numerous studies have shown that poor indoor air quality can affect someone’s sense of well being, and can further affect things such as absenteeism rates in schools, productivity, creativity, and even motivation. When indoor air quality is an issue, it is typically very complex and hard to properly understand or diagnose as the origination of the issue can come from limitless possibilities, as well as hundreds of different contaminants.

Definitions

California Proposition 65: Passed in 1986, requires businesses to provide a clear and reasonable warning before knowingly and intentionally exposing anyone to a listed chemical. The proposition 65 list includes hundreds of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.

• This is why many products/materials have a, “notice to California residents” warning.

Safety Data Sheets (SDS): OSHA regulates that all manufacturers develop SDS’s for their products if they contain harmful chemicals.

Organic Feedstock

One of the biggest and easiest to understand contributions to poor air quality is mold. Mold does not grow on inorganic material (concrete for example) and it needs ‘organic’ material to grow on. When thinking about where mold can grow, keep this in mind.