September 24, 2020

Indoor Air Quality + Physiological Health

Indoor Air Quality - Physiological Health Talking Points

Indoor air quality impacts building occupants’ perception of their environment and their health. Avoiding pollutants, removing them, or diluting them, can reduce negative effects on occupants’ health.

Keywords

Indoor air quality, physiological health, absenteeism, SBS, ventilation, pollutants

Indoor Pollutants

• Indoor air pollutants can be classified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter, infectious agents, allergens and gases (Gerardi 2010). High level of these indoor pollutants are associated with health effects, especially for people with existent asthma or other respiratory problems (MacNaughton 2015).

Sick Building Syndrome

• The primary factors triggering SBS symptoms are outdoor ventilation rates, temperature, humidity, dust, and microbial content of the air (Burge 2004). Evidence suggests that low outdoor ventilation rates can cause respiratory health effects such as mucosal and allergy symptoms, and other SBS related symptoms (Fisk 2017).

Asthma

• A major factor in the development and exacerbation of asthma is exposure to indoor allergens and irritants such as dust, particulates, mold and moisture, with as much at 40% of the excess asthma in minority children attributed to exposure to indoor allergens (Lanphear 2001).

Ventilation + IAQ

• Natural ventilation can significantly reduce adverse effects of indoor air pollutants by reducing their concentration in indoor air (Gerardi 2010). In addition, increasing outdoor ventilation rates beyond ASHRAE standard has been found to have benefits in health and performance and reduce building related health symptoms (Mendell 2013, Allen 2016, Fisk 2017, Tarantini 2017).

Ventilation + Spread of Airborne Infectious Disease

• Increasing ventilation rates and outdoor air exchange rates, enhancing filtration and disinfection, and avoiding air-recirculation can reduce the spread of airborne infectious disease by diluting bacterial and viral load in indoor air (Seppanen 1999, Li 2007, Bahnfleth et al. 2020).

Ventilation + Absenteeism

• Many offices and schools experience ventilation rates well below ASHRAE standards (Mendell 2013). Increased ventilation rates greatly benefit occupant health and can significantly reduce sickness related absences in work and school settings (Mendell 2005, Wyon 2004, Wargocki 2000, Fisk 2017, Allen 2016).

Ventilation + Energy + Diminishing Returns for IAQ

• There is a rate of diminishing returns for increasing ventilation rates in a building (Myatt 2002). Higher ventilation rates can impose energy costs and increase size of HVAC systems (Fisk 2017). In buildings that have adequate ventilation of outdoor air, increasing the ventilation rate will not necessarily yield higher indoor air quality (Barolin 2020).

Key References

Review Articles

• Burge, P. S. “Sick building syndrome.” Occupational and environmental medicine 61, no. 2 (2004): 185-190.
• Fisk, William J. “The ventilation problem in schools: literature review.” Indoor Air 27, no. 6 (2017): 1039-1051.
• Gerardi, Daniel A. “Building-related illness.” Clinical Pulmonary Medicine 17, no. 6 (2010): 276-281.
• Seppänen, O. A., W. J. Fisk, and M. J. Mendell. “Association of ventilation rates and CO2 concentrations with health andother responses in commercial and institutional buildings.” Indoor air 9, no. 4 (1999): 226-252.
• Tarantini, Mariantonietta, Giovanni Pernigotto, and Andrea Gasparella. “A co-citation analysis on thermal comfort and productivity aspects in production and office buildings.” Buildings 7, no. 2 (2017): 36.
• Wargocki, Pawel, David P. Wyon, and P. Ole Fanger. “Productivity is affected by the air quality in offices.” In Proceedings of Healthy Buildings, vol. 1, no. 1 (2000): 635-40.

Primary Research

• Allen, Joseph G., Piers MacNaughton, Usha Satish, Suresh Santanam, Jose Vallarino, and John D. Spengler. “Associations of cognitive function scores with carbon dioxide, ventilation, and volatile organic compound exposures in office workers: a controlled exposure study of green and conventional office environments.” Environmental health perspectives 124, no. 6 (2016): 805-812.
• Barolin, Austin, Travis English et al. “Advanced HVAC Technology Demonstration Project to Reduce Natural Gas Use in Hospitals.” California Energy Comission (2020).
• Bahnfleth, William, Lidia Morawska, Julian W. Tang, Philomena M. Bluyssen, Atze Boerstra, Giorgio Buonanno, Junji Cao et al. “How can airborne transmission of COVID-19 indoors be minimised?.” (2020).
• Lanphear, Bruce P., C. Andrew Aligne, Peggy Auinger, Michael Weitzman, and Robert S. Byrd. “Residential exposures associated with asthma in US children.” Pediatrics 107, no. 3 (2001): 505-511.
• MacNaughton, Piers, James Pegues, Usha Satish, Suresh Santanam, John Spengler, and Joseph Allen. “Economic, environmental and health implications of enhanced ventilation in office buildings.” International journal of environmental research and public health 12, no. 11 (2015): 14709-14722.
• Mendell, Mark J., Quanhong Lei, M. G. Apte, and William J. Fisk. “Outdoor air ventilation and work-related symptoms in US office buildings-results from the BASE study.” (2005).
• Mendell, Mark J., Ekaterina A. Eliseeva, Molly M. Davies, Michael Spears, Agnes Lobscheid, William J. Fisk, and Michael G. Apte. “Association of classroom ventilation with reduced illness absence: a prospective study in California elementary schools.” Indoor air 23, no. 6 (2013): 515-528.
• Milton, Donald. “Risk of sick leave associated with outdoor air supply rate, humidification, and occupant complaints.” Indoor air 10 (2000): 212-221.
• Myatt, Theodore A., John Staudenmayer, Kate Adams, Michael Walters, Stephen N. Rudnick, and Donald K. Milton. “A study of indoor carbon dioxide levels and sick leave among office workers.” Environmental Health 1, no. 1 (2002): 3.
• Wyon, David P. “The effects of indoor air quality on performance and productivity.” Indoor air 14, no. 1 (2004): 92-101.