Indoor Air Nerd

Do people care about indoor air quality?

Ian Cull — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:35:14 +0000

I subscribe to Consumer Reports magazine. In the June 2012 edition, there was a feature article on indoor air quality. It talks about all the regular stuff: mold, radon, carbon monoxide, VOCs, etc.

What I found interesting is that the Consumer Reports National Research Center performed a survey to ascertain the importance of indoor air quality to the US consumer. What percent of Americans do you think considered indoor air quality to be a threat to their health?

A paltry 9% considered it be a threat to health. Furthermore, an astounding 70% weren’t concerned about indoor air quality at all! If everyone understood how the indoor environment affect health, more than 9% would consider it to be an important threat.

Do you think Consumer Reports numbers are accurate? Please comment on my blog!

IAQA Tech Tip video on new IESO standard

Ian Cull — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:37:18 +0000

If you do any consulting related to fire-damaged buildings, there is a new standard you need to purchase. To determine if a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system has been impacted by a fire, you’ll want to follow the new IESO/RIA standard. Watch the video below for more information.

If you’re having any problems viewing the video, use this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqCJx84rW0U

Exposure limit for fungal spores?

Ian Cull — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:54:37 +0000

I was doing some reading today and I came across a paper looking at the dose-response relationship between fungal spores and various health effects.

Here is a quote from their conclusions:

“In conclusion, the combined evidence from human challenge and epidemiological studies support fairly consistent LOELs [lowest observed effect levels] of approximately [100,000] spores/m3 for diverse fungal species in non-sensitised populations. However, identification of the fungal biota is required in order to document the occurrence of the more toxic mycotoxin containing species and pathogenic species before measurements are evaluated.”

Here is a link to the document: http://gupea.ub.gu.se/dspace/bitstream/2077/4359/1/ah2006_21.pdf.

The Nordic Expert Group for Criteria Documentation of Health Risks from Chemicals 139. Fungal spores by Wijnand Eduard.

I have seen their LOEL value of 100,000 spores/m3 quoted in other published papers. I’ll be interested to see if future research supports these findings for non-sensitive populations. When it comes to sensitive populations, all the rules change!

IAQA Tech Tip Video on Respirators

Ian Cull — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:15:40 +0000

Here is a video on respirators I put together for the Indoor Air Quality Association.

If you have a hard time viewing the video, here is a direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoEp5KGOoak&hd=1

Twitter updates from week ending 2012-03-08

Ian Cull — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:30:00 +0000

New WHO document:
Environmental burden of disease
associated with inadequate housing: http://t.co/bllVt67v ->
I'm back in town after attending #IAQA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. Thanks to my two co-presenters, Ben Kollmeyer and Elliott Horner ->
#IAQA Luke Gard presentation. Found statistically significant reduction of cat allergen only with HEPA vacuuming. ->
#IAQA Moldy homes don't necessarily predict endotoxin levels in dust. ->
#IAQA Cultural air samples for bacteria should be shipped cool, not cold. Don't stress the organism! ->
#IAQA Jason Dobranic presentation… In general bacteria outnumber fungi in the Indoor Air. ->
#IAQA Spore traps lack accuracy and precision. Only two people in the room say they do regular viable sampling. ->
#IAQA Lab variability with spore trap analysis is frightening. 10 times difference with labs looking at the same slide! ->
#IAQA #acca12 Larry Robertson giving a great presentation on spore traps. ->
At legal session by Steven Mandell. The courts now accept that mold causes health effects. VOCs are not as straight forward. ->
I'm at the Indoor Air Quality Association Annual Meeting. I'll send out a few tweets under #iaqa12 ->

Ideal Temperature

Ian Cull — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:02:53 +0000

Here’s another IAQA Tech Tip video on the ideal temperature.

For a direct link to the video, use this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=munKVtxqpOs&hd=1

IAQA Tech Tip Videos

Ian Cull — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:01:55 +0000

In my not-so-new role as Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) Technical Director, I am developing some educational videos. The videos are posted on YouTube and are freely available to everyone, not just IAQA members.
As these videos come out, I will provide a link here on my blog. Enjoy!

If you’re looking for more information on indoor air quality, check out the 50 classes I developed for the IAQA:

http://www.iaqa.org/iaqa-university

California Statement on Building Dampness, Mold, and Health

Ian Cull — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:57:40 +0000

Do people, especially children, get sick in damp buildings? Is it because of the mold? Or is it the bacteria, insects and rodents attracted to the moisture causing the problems? Or is it a combination of these exposures having a negative synergistic effect?

Although the answers to these questions are not well understood, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) just released a 2-page statement to clarify some issues.

To the question, “Do people get sick in damp buildings?” here is what the statement says…

CDPH has concluded that the presence of water damage, dampness, visible mold, or mold odor

in schools, workplaces, residences, and other indoor environments is unhealthy.

Now that we’ve established it’s unhealthy, how should we as professionals diagnose these problems? Here is what the statement says…

We recommend against measuring indoor microorganisms or using the presence of specific microorganisms to determine the level of health hazard or the need for urgent remediation.

This advice is contrary to current practice in the field of indoor air quality. The truth probably lies somewhere between never measuring for microorganisms and always measuring for them. In place of sampling for mold, the statement strongly recommends visually identifying the source of moisture causing the growth and correcting the problem. The statement indirectly suggests that money is best spend fixing the water problem and drying, cleaning or removing impacted materials, rather than taking more samples.

The statement specifically recommends against “traditional methods” of sampling. I presume they are specifically referring to air sampling for mold. It seems like they are leaving the window open for other types of sampling, such as dust samples analyzed by PCR for the ERMI method (Environmental Relative Moldiness Index). A recent study showed a correlation between ERMI levels at 1 year of age and developing asthma at 7 years of age (High environmental relative moldiness index during infancy as a predictor of asthma at 7 years of age, Reponen et al).

Although this advice is contrary to what many readers actually practice, I think we can learn something from the statement. We need to double our efforts at solving moisture problems and spend less time chasing spores. I recommend you download and read the 2-page document: Statement on Building Dampness, Mold, and Health.

My Twitter feeds from Indoor Air 2011, Austin TX

Ian Cull — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Pregnant women in the U.S. are exposed to multiple chemicals. Excellent research article: http://goo.gl/xo27w ->
Current evidence does not support measuring specific indoor microbiologic factors to guide health-protective actions http://t.co/4b6hXko ->
Climate Change, the Indoor Environment, and Health: http://t.co/TZj1tg5 via @NASciences ->
I'm just about to fly out of Texas. Keep up with the tweets so i can follow along with the action. Great conference! #indoorair2011 ->
"We need a IEQ professional practice degree" -Andy Ask. #indoorair2011 ->
Andy Ask advocates 7 years of formal education for practicing professions related to indoor environments. #indoorair2011 ->
Attending a session on the professional practice of IEQ consulting. After this i have to fly back home. #indoorair2011 ->
Filtration of outdoor air entering buildings may be feasible to reduce exposures and health effects in specific applications. #indoorair2011 ->
"Indoor air = Outdoor air (with exceptions )" #indoorair2011 ->
"43 chemicals found in virtually every pregnant woman" #indoorair2011 ->
Endocrine disrupting chemicals found in dust and targets children. #indoorair2011 ->
Im the session chair for odors! come one come all! Room 18. #indoorair2011 ->
High ERMI score at age 1 increases risk for asthma at age 7 (2.6 times). #indoorair2011 ->
Increased risk of asthma for high visible mold with young children. #indoorair2011 ->
Endotoxin and fungi have synergistic effect on health. #indoorair2011 ->
Mark Mendell presentation- quantitative sampling of microorganisms not able to identify causal relationship with symptoms. #indoorair2011 ->
Presenter with T-shirt… "keep it simple, clean, and dry and ventilate" #indoorair2011 ->
Assessments esp. needed when patients don't respond to regular treatments or they are needed year round. #indoorair2011 ->
Medical treatments don't address the underlying problem in environmentally induced allergies and asthma #indoorair2011 ->
Attending workshop on physician informed indoor environmental assessments by Grimes and others. #indoorair2011 ->
Question for Joe… "What are your thoughts on natural ventilation?" #indoorair2011 ->
In Chinese study, 84% preferred naturally ventilated building. #indoorair2011 ->
People have a wider comfort range in naturally ventilated buildings. #indoorair2011 ->
Next plenary session from Dr. Yingxin Zhu, an expert on thermal comfort. #indoorair2011 ->
Joe promoting sealed combustion appliances. You don't need a hole in the wall for combustion air. #indoorair2011 ->
You need to seal the return ducts to not kill anyone from carbon monoxide. #indoorair2011 ->
The cost of fixing a leaky building is less than testing the building. #indoorair2011 ->
Blower doors only calculate equivalent leakage area. You don't know where it's coming from. #indoorair2011 ->
Joe Lstiburek offends Texans in first 10 seconds of his presentation! #indoorair2011 ->