EPA Teams with Building Industry Experts on Comprehensive IAQ Guide

Too often, indoor air quality (IAQ) problems result from poor planning, improper design, or inadequate construction methods and materials. If design and construction teams work together to incorporate good IAQ strategies from the start, many of the common pitfalls can be avoided.

The Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning is a collaboration between the American Society of Refrigerating, Heating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the American Institute of Architects, the Building Owners and Managers Association International, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors of North America, and the United States Green Building Council, which awards the internationally recognized LEED green building certification system.

The book outlines specific strategies for achieving eight critical IAQ objectives relative to moisture management, ventilation, filtration and cleaning, and source control.

A 198-page summary of the guide can be downloaded free of charge at www.ashrae.org/iaq. The full publication, including a CD, is also available through ASHRAE for $29.

Within the summary, Objective 2 - Control Moisture in Building Assemblies and Objective 4 - Control Moisture and Contaminants Related to Mechanical Systems offer strategies to limit water and moisture intrusion, which directly impact the growth of fungal (mold) species.

The summary guide states in Objective 2 that "Moisture in buildings is a major contributor to mold growth and the poor IAQ that can result. Wetting of building walls and rainwater leaks are major causes of water infiltration."

There is also significant attention in this section given to controlling indoor humidity levels. High humidity supports the growth of mold, dust mite populations, and other biological contaminants indoors that may cause allergies or other health problems for building occupants.

Low humidity levels can dry out mucous membranes. Either way, "humidity conditions also affect people's perceptions of the IAQ."

Objective 4 starts out explaining the important role of mechanical systems in providing good IAQ. It then states "However, since many mechanical systems carry water or become wet during operation, they can also amplify and distribute microbial contaminants." Detailed strategies are discussed for each component of the mechanical systems.

Considering IAQ from the initial design process through the building occupancy will ensure that everyone breathes a little easier.

Air Matters LLC has performed mold testing services in the Raleigh NC area since 2002. The owner, Renee D. Ward, has over 22 years of safety and environmental experience and holds both her Bachelors and Masters degrees in engineering. Renee is also a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the American Indoor Air Quality Council. You may contact Air Matters at (919) 961-2221 or info@AirMattersMoldTesting.com.

Should the Dust Mites in Your Mattress Scare You?

You have heard the radio commercials with the statistics. You have seen the ads with the pictures (which look pretty scary when magnified 5,000 times!). Oprah has done a special episode on it. Even the Wall Street Journal has published articles in the past saying that "the average mattress will double its weight in ten years due to an accumulation of dust mites and their feces."

The thought of crawling into bed with pounds and pounds of dust mites and their feces gives you nightmares, not a restful night's sleep. Next you calculate the age of your mattress, and now you are truly frightened. The next day, you immediately begin your quest for new bedding.

A great marketing ploy, but do these claims have any scientific basis? Here are what a few experts in the field of dust mites had to say to Cecil Adams, who writes a syndicated weekly newspaper column called "The Straight Dope":

"It's nonsense," said mite authority Larry Arlian, professor of biological sciences, microbiology, and immunology at Wright State University. "I don't know where that originated. They're not that prolific."

Thomas Platts-Mills, professor of medicine and dust-mite guru at the University of Virginia, agreed. "I've heard that kind of stuff," he said. "I don't believe it. I'm sure there's an added weight but I don't think anyone has ever actually measured it."

Emmett Glass is the Ohio State University research associate leading the "Dust Mite Management Study" He was the gentleman that Wall Street Journal reporter said was the source of the claim that a mattress will double its weight due to dust mites. Emmett writes:

"I never quoted that statistic. I told [the reporter] that Internet web sites have statistics that try to strike fear in the consumer, thus promoting their products. I gave her a few off the top of my head (two million mites in an average mattress, mattress doubling in weight, etc.) that I read over the years. She asked me if any of these statistics have any scientific merit and I told her that none of them are in the literature. To the layman that is NO! In fact I asked the Wall Street Journal writer to call an expert on mattresses at the internal sleep products association. She did and was told that the statistic on mattresses doubling in weight was far from the truth. The journalist choose to include it in the story anyway. She liked the statistic because it made her story more interesting."

According to the American College of Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, only 10% of the general population is allergic to dust mites. However, 90% of people with allergic asthma are likely sensitive to dust mites and should take additional precautions.

Margot Carmichael Lester at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham offers the following tips to reduce your exposure to dust mites:

•Keep relative humidity low (under 55 percent) because dryness kills germs.
•Use a HEPA filter-equipped vacuum to keep allergens from releasing back into the air. Change the bags at least once a month.
•Switch out air filters according to manufacturers recommendations.
•Vacuum mattresses, carpets, upholstered furniture and window treatments at a very high setting.
•Toss stuffed animals, throw pillows and small rugs into the dryer on high heat regularly.
•Cover bed pillows, mattresses and box springs with impervious covers to keep dust mites from coming through.
•Unclutter rooms with most use (bedrooms, family rooms), including extra pillows and bed covers, out-of-season clothing, throw rugs, stuffed animals – and anything that gets (and stays) dusty.

You can use the money you save by not having to buy a new mattress to take your family over to Durham for a visit to the museum!

Air Matters LLC has performed mold testing services in the Raleigh NC area since 2002. The owner, Renee D. Ward, has over 22 years of safety and environmental experience and holds both her Bachelors and Masters degrees in engineering. Renee is also a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the American Indoor Air Quality Council. You may contact Air Matters at (919) 961-2221 or info@AirMattersMoldTesting.com.

Who Knew Slime Molds Were So Smart?

If you have been in North Carolina in the summer time, you have seen it. The big yellow patch that appears on the mulch bed in your yard a couple of days after the rain. It looks like. . . well, dog vomit. Eeeeew!

This is slime mold, officially named Physarum polycephalum. However, slime mold is not truly a mold, as it is not classified as a fungi. Although slime molds may not be fungi, they are apparently smart. Check out this article from The New York Times:


Slime Mold Proves to be a Brainy Blob
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Let's hear it for slime molds. Researchers in Japan have shown that a slime mold can design a network that is as efficient as the Tokyo rail system. Furthermore, the slime mold can build its network in a day.

A slime mold is what scientists call a single-celled amoeboid organism. When foraging for food, it spreads out as an amorphous mass, then builds tubular connections between food sources. This is a smart blob.

"We've found an unexpected high ability of information processing in this organism," said Toshiyuki Nakagaki, a researcher at Hokkaido University. "I wanted to pose a complicated problem to this slime mold, to design a large network," Nakagaki said. "This kind of program is not so easy, even for humans."

So he and his colleagues set up an experiment where they laid out 36 bits of food in a pattern corresponding to cities in the Tokyo area and put a slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, at the spot corresponding to Tokyo.

As they report in Science, after 26 hours the slime mold had created a series of tubular connections that matched, to a great extent, the rail links among these cities. The researchers found that the slime mold network was as efficient as the rail network, it tolerated breaks in the connections just as well, and it was created at a reasonable cost to the organism.


26 hours and at a reasonable cost?? I think we have just identified the perfect contractor to design the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor from Charlotte to Washington DC!


Air Matters LLC has performed mold testing services in the Raleigh NC area since 2002. The owner, Renee D. Ward, has over 22 years of safety and environmental experience and holds both her Bachelors and Masters degrees in engineering. Renee is also a member of the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the American Indoor Air Quality Council. You may contact Air Matters at (919) 961-2221 or info@AirMattersMoldTesting.com.