Indoor Air Quality

The purpose of this program is to establish a uniform set of guidelines for maintaining indoor air of adequate quality in all campus buildings.

Through the collaborative efforts of EH&S, Facilities Services, and individual departments, indoor air quality shall be maintained through reasonable preventive and responsive measures. Preventive approaches include periodic inspections, preventive maintenance, and plan reviews. Responsive approaches consist of a mechanism for reporting complaints (see below), follow-up investigation and assessment, and implementation of corrective actions.

Please contact EH&S with any questions or concerns, or for any additional information regarding indoor air quality.

Acute Complaints

Odors are usually caused by a source significant enough to briefly overwhelm a building's HVAC system. In some cases, odors are related to maintenance or construction activities. Often, the odor can be traced to activities in neighboring offices or labs.

Chronic Unsatisfactory Conditions

Chronic unsatisfactory conditions are those which are caused by a persistent source present in the building which doesn't diminish over time. Sources which cause chronic mild symptoms related to the occupancy of a building are far more difficult to assess and often require complex investigative methods.

Mechanism Of Complaint Reporting

All indoor air quality complaints should be reported formally to Facilities Services Work Control, at x86242. Work Control will forward the complaint immediately to EH&S and/or Facilities Services. An investigation will then be conducted to identify the source of the odor, to assess the employee exposure, if any, and to implement corrective action.