The Keep it Simple IAQ Progam
While indoor air quality issues are often given a low priority in buildings, it is important to remember one important thing about poor air quality whether you are a building owner, a tenant or a property manager:
• Poor indoor air quality costs YOU money.
Sick employees and sick buildings cost everyone money. The quicker you identify the potential issues the easier and cheaper they are to fix or avoid all together.
The Right Wrong Approach
There are thousands of web pages and trade magazine articles that will tell you how to set up a well-designed indoor air quality (IAQ) management program. The EPA even has terrific guide and web page devoted exclusively to helping building owners set up a comprehensive indoor air quality management program:
But the reality is that most building owners and managers simply don’t have the time or budget to complete such an activity so IAQ issues get ignored and go unresolved until they become huge problems.
So instead, we suggest following a more common sense approach to managing your IAQ. Indoor Environment Group’s “Keep It Simple IAQ Program” is designed to help you focus on the two most important issues when it comes to air quality
1. You need to know IF you have any problems
2. Building occupants need to be involved
Step 1
Especially in the winter, small issues such as odors, condensation, employee illnesses and lack of fresh air can quickly turn into major problems…either real or perceived.
The best way to deal with these potential problems is to identify them early and there is no better time to do so then right now.
The first, and probably most important, step towards improving your air quality is the completion of an indoor air quality assessment of your building.
Your (at least) annual walk through should look at a number of items including:
• Building exterior
• Building envelope
• Interior surfaces
• Ventilation systems
• Moisture
• General housekeeping
• Office equipment
• Air quality levels
To help you during this step we have prepared an Annual IAQ Inspection Checklist. You can download this free checklist by CLICKING HERE. (Right click or option-click the link and choose "Save As..." to download this file.)
Once you have completed the walk through take some time to review your findings and put together a plan to correct any deficiencies.
Step 2
The next step is to involve the building occupants. Humans are naturally afraid of the unknown. Many of the air quality investigations we perform are the result of “perceived” problems in the building.
News programs, discussions with co-workers, strange odors or other influences commonly result in concerns about the air quality in a person’s workplace.
If you keep people informed on issues you minimize confusion and concern, especially with an issue like air quality. If you let building occupants know that you are monitoring their environment and striving to provide good air quality they are far less likely to have concerns about their workplace.
Keeping building occupants involved includes three simple tasks:
1. Let people know about your commitment to good IAQ
2. Survey building occupants about their concerns
3. Provide an indoor air quality complaint form
Again, Indoor Environment Group can provide you templates and forms to help you with this step. Contact us for more information.
Summary
The Keep It Simple IAQ Program is based on over 20 years of experience in dealing with indoor air quality issues and on our knowledge of the demands that building owners and managers face in the real world.
While it probably should be, we know that air quality isn’t on the top of your list of priorities. So we strive to make air quality management as painless as possible.
As usual, we are always happy to answer any questions you have about any environmental, health and safety or facility management question. Contact us today at 651-705-8820.
