Indoor Air Quality in Today's Built Environment
There are a number of regulations focused on outdoor air quality, but indoor air quality (IAQ) standards can vary from state-to-state. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers recommends that some outdoor air be brought inside. However, this is not always possible, making the built environment variable. In the restoration and remediation industry, these IAQ issues translate into moisture and mold issues that involve not only a remediation plan but also getting to the root cause of the issue. Dr. Bob Moore, chief science officer at IAQ Analytics in Melbourne, Australia, says, "So rather than all chemical and biological constituents of air coming from the outside, some can actually be getting generated indoors itself." Technicians can take IAQ readings and compare them to the International Standards Organization, or reference acceptable particle levels from the World Health Organization. Doing air quality testing can offer valuable information about the remediation needs in the home or business where they are working, and allow them to address problems the property owner may not have known existed in the first place.