Title: Indoor Environmental Quality Programming
Course: WGF 106 DEVELOPMENT > Section: Content

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Content | Americans spend nine out of ten hours indoors; and indoor air commonly contains higher concentrations of airborne chemical contaminants and pathogenic microbes than outdoor air. Biological and chemical terrorism, sick buildings, cruise ship disease outbreaks, toxic molds, and epidemics of asthma and allergies, all have made the issue of healthy air critical. Removing biological pathogens and toxic chemical compounds from air—air decontamination—has been a recognized need for decades and has mostly been accomplished through ventilation. Airflow and ventilation are already key factors in worker comfort, health and productivity, building design, and energy efficiency. Air security is the next frontier, and can also improve the health of the day-to-day air in a modern facility. This Resource Page presents both the scientific fundamentals of clean air, vis-à-vis filtration and UV, and the benefits and obstacles associated with these technologies. It also briefly discusses a number of other technologies that have been offered as solutions. This Page was written to provide a general understanding of air decontamination technologies for practitioners that may be new to this field, as well as provide updated codes and resources for those who wish to gain more in depth knowledge. Since the field is in considerable flux, a number of source documents from government and professional association websites where up-to-the-minute information can be obtained are also provided.
Attributions | Image and Content courtesy of Whole Building Design Guide.