The Bottom Line on IAQ and Mold Contamination

This blog post is written to convey my personal experience as an Indoor Air Quality consultant for the last 21 years. Surprisingly (to me anyway) there is still a lot of hype in this field and it is really unnecessary! This hype has allowed many "consultants" to exploit clients' fears, but I have never been a party to that. This has resulted in my gross annual income being under $200k, while theirs is easily over $2M!

Why is no hype necessary? - Well, in an industrial environment where one can be exposed to multiple air contaminants, or in a specialized environment (e.g., laboratory) where one may be exposed to one or two specific air contaminants, there are very necessary exposure limits published, updated and regulated by OSHA and other agencies. It is required that workers in these environments be tested periodically to confirm that they are not exposed to air contaminant concentrations higher than these exposure limits.

However, where most of the IAQ concerns pop up are not in these environments, but in NON-industrial environments such as office buildings or schools! There are of course practical guidelines for these non industrial environments with regard to carbon dioxide and mold, but thats about it. Accordingly, when asked to do a survey of typical air contaminants, everything will test out near zero everytime. Of course the other consultants will go on a rant about more testing being necessary, but it more than likely will NOT be necessary.

What many people underestimate is the power of the human nose. Just because we smell something odd doesn't mean we should be overly concerned. Health exposure guidelines are based on continuous exposure to certain concentrations, not on the occasional foul whiff. I have conducted over 200 building IAQ surveys and 90% of the time, I have seen nothing to justify a health concern. The other 10% of the time the offense has been obvious with the culprit being dry erase markers, over watered plants, food odors, poor air circulation, improper ventilation equipment maintenance or a minor mold accumulation. In each case the "fix" has rarely cost anything!

Mold contamination is also something to keep in proper perspective. First of all, there are mold spores all around us in every environment! The key is to keep the concentration of airborne spores below the concentration that our own immune systems can handle. Once the food (e.g., wallboard paper) and water source (e.g., humidity) are removed from an area where mold was discovered, the environment is no longer conducive to mold growth = problem solved. Yes, it really is that simple.

The benefit of IAQ surveys these days is simply to maintain good will with building tenants. They will want to see that the building owner proactively maintains an optimum indoor environment for his tenants.


To your health in proper perspective

Steve Stewart
Indoor Air Solutions