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Thousand of pollutants are found indoors. Indoor exposure concentrations are one to five times the median outdoor concentrations, and sometimes as much as 100 times more polluted than outdoors. One significant consequence is Sick Building Syndrome which affects 30% of new and renovated buildings with estimates that one out of every three workers occupying a workplace is getting sick from it. Many occupants experience temporary symptoms while other develop permanent ill effects and chemical sensitivities.
 Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is usually measured by quantity of contaminants in the air of an indoor space which affect its quality for the occupants. In commercial buildings it is generally evaluated based on employee absence, sick leave and productivity losses. Good IAQ involves minimizing the contaminants through proper materials selection, adequate airflow, regular building maintenance and selective activity monitoring.
The two building conditions commonly determined to be the source of indoor air quality problems are:
1.A ventilation system which is inadequate or unable to control existing air contaminants — usually because of a problem with the design or operation of the HVAC system; or it can be the cause itself from microbiological growth within the system.
2.Contaminants, which can emanate from indoors, outdoors, or within the mechanical system of the building, are generally of three types: chemical, biological, or particulate — of which most of society is unaware and takes for granted:
•chemicals — VOCs offgassed from such things as the ink of newspapers and magazines, cleaning products, carpeting, furniture, adhesives, insulation, plywood and particleboard, pesticides, and residues on leather, synthetic fabrics, synthetic polymer based furnishings and decorative materials.
•biological contaminants — such as molds and bacteria.
•particulates — such as lead, asbestos, sawdust, printing and copying equipment, soft goods such as carpets and fabrics, and tobacco smoke.
In 1962 Rachel Carson’s alarming book, Silent Spring, documented the dangerous affects of chemicals in our environment. Yet, now 40 years later there are well over 70,000 chemicals currently in commerce, only 10% of which have been tested for neurotoxicity.
A more recent book, Our Stolen Future, tells an even more frightening tale and includes case studies and research findings which disclose the documented effects these chemical exposures have wreaked upon us without our consent or knowledge — and their effects on wildlife. For example, creatures in the most remote parts of the planet have elevated levels of chemicals in their body fat and physiological problems are being seen across many different species worldwide — not just in humans. Most alarming are problems affecting the ability to reproduce, which could lead to the extinction of a species. Many of these chemicals are commonly used in the manufacture and/or installation of building materials.
Currently, our observation of this problem is vast, but our scientifically quantifiable knowledge is limited. Adequate data for exposure assessment is almost non-existent. So little testing has been performed that not much is known in terms of levels of chemicals emitted from all sorts of materials and products and even less is known about their relational levels to adverse health effects. Relating one specific pollutant concentration exposure to a specific health complaint is difficult, particularly since multiple exposures to many low level pollutants over many years have become commonplace.
Chemical contaminants typically implicated in Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) include combustion product gases (like carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and natural gas), radon, ozone, second hand tobacco smoke and VOCs (such as pesticides, formaldehyde, benzene, aldehydes and many others) which are known or suspected of causing cancer, endocrine disruption or developmental toxicity).
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