Indoor Air Quality

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants.

Indoor air quality is defined in comparison to set standards for comfort measured by temperature, humidity, oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulates in the air.

Odors are separate component of indoor air quality for which comfort standards don't exist. 

Some health effects may show up shortly after a single exposure or repeated exposures to a pollutant.  These include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Such immediate effects are usually short-term and treatable.  Sometimes the treatment is simply eliminating the person's exposure to the source of the pollution if it can be identified. Soon after exposure to some indoor air pollutants, symptoms of some diseases such as asthma may show up, be aggravated, or worsened.

The likelihood of immediate reactions to indoor air pollutants depends on several factors including age and preexisting medical conditions. In some cases, whether a person reacts to a pollutant depends on individual sensitivity, which varies tremendously from person to person. Some people can become sensitized to biological or chemical pollutants after repeated or high level exposures.

Certain immediate effects are similar to those from colds or other viral diseases, so it is often difficult to determine if the symptoms are a result of exposure to indoor air pollution.  For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the time and place symptoms occur.  If the symptoms fade or go away when a person is away from the area, for example, an effort should be made to identify indoor air sources that may be possible causes.  Some effects may be made worse by an inadequate supply of outdoor air coming indoors or from the heating, cooling or humidity conditions prevalent indoors.

Other health effects may show up either years after exposure has occurred or only after long or repeated periods of exposure.  These effects, which include some respiratory diseases, heart disease and cancer, can be severely debilitating or fatal. It is prudent to try to improve the indoor air quality in your home even if symptoms are not noticeable.

While pollutants commonly found in indoor air can cause many harmful effects, there is considerable uncertainty about what concentrations or periods of exposure are necessary to produce specific health problems. People also react very differently to exposure to indoor air pollutants.  Further research is needed to better understand which health effects occur after exposure to the average pollutant concentrations found in homes and which occurs from the higher concentrations that occur for short periods of time.

Initial concerns about indoor air issue should be addressed to Facilities Services HVAC unit by contacting the Facilities Services Customer Service Center at (415) 338-1568 or (415) 405-0579. They can investigate and determine whether the issue is related to their ventilation equipment or has some other cause.

If Facilities Services cannot identify the source of the problem, or they have determined that the problem is not coming from their equipment, then EH&S may be contacted to investigate further. This is often the case with odor complaints.

Odor complaints are notoriously difficult to identify and investigate. Sometimes surveys are used to characterize the time and location the problem to offer a clue to its source.

One technique that is not normally used in odor investigations is air sampling by an industrial hygienist. Air sampling is generally only useful if the industrial hygienist knows what chemical to sample for, the chemical has an approved analytical method of detection (sampling) and analysis, and a regulatory guideline is available to interpret the results of the sampling.