National Indoor Air Quality Awareness Month and Resources to Optimize the Built Environment

For most people, a comfortable temperature and relative humidity, good ventilation, and a lack of unpleasant odors are key indoor air quality (IAQ) components. Equally important is understanding and controlling unseen airborne pollutants commonly found indoors to help reduce the risk of health concerns.

On average, Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors. The concentrations of some indoor pollutants can be 2 to 5 times higher than typical outdoor concentrations according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To focus attention on this, and the overall importance of IAQ in homes, schools, businesses and other built environments, October is recognized as National Indoor Air Quality Awareness Month.

“Indoor pollutants impacting your facility can originate from numerous sources, including cleanliness issues, lack of ventilation, dampness, construction activities taking place inside the building, smoking, cooking, indoor activities, new building materials and furnishing, how many people are in the building, and so much more,” said Derrick A. Denis, Vice President of Indoor Environmental Quality for Clark Seif Clark (CSC). “Some of the more common IAQ pollutants include mold, pollen, particulate matter, sewer gas, animal dander, radon, formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pesticides, lead, asbestos, carbon monoxide and combustion gases, and tobacco and marijuana smoke to name just a few. These pollutants can even come from a combination of outdoor and indoor sources. This is why it takes an experienced IAQ professional to be able to assess potential issues and to come up with real solutions to improve indoor conditions.”

Dedicated to helping clients create optimal indoor environments in residential, commercial and institutional properties are the building science and industrial hygiene experts at CSC. Their professionals provide building assessments, testing and monitoring to identify and mitigate exposure risks to a wide range of chemical and microbial concerns.

Last year, CSC sponsored an educational video about National Indoor Air Quality Awareness Month that can still be seen at: https://youtu.be/RbLmbmixmOU

To learn more about this or other indoor air quality, building science, occupational, environmental, health and safety services, please visit www.csceng.com, email csc@csceng.com or call (800) 807-1118.

About Clark Seif Clark
CSC was established in 1989 to help clients in both public and private sectors address indoor air quality, occupational, environmental, and health and safety (EH&S) issues. CSC is a leading provider of these services with multiple offices along the western seaboard and southwest. The company believes in science-based protocols and has a strong background in engineering, making them the preferred environmental consultants to industrial clients, healthcare facilities, architects, schools, builders, contractors, developers and real estate professionals.

Contact Information

Paul Cochrane

President

Cochrane & Associates, LLC

Contact via E-mail