Indoor Air Quality Testing

According to the U.S. EPA, people spend as much as 90% of their time indoors. Due to this potentially extended exposure period, indoor pollutants can have harmful effects on health, productivity, and morale even at relatively low concentrations. Using state-of-the-art investigative methods, C&IH works with clients to identify and manage indoor pollutants to improve Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), building sustainability, and worker productivity. We offer industrial hygiene-based indoor air quality testing to identify indoor air contaminants and, when necessary, design engineered solutions to control them. C&IH provides IEQ services to a variety of commercial, manufacturing, and institutional environments addressing chemical contaminants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), bacteria (e.g., MRSA and Legionella), and other microbial agents (e.g., mold/fungi) and their metabolites.

C&IH’s Approach to Indoor Air Quality Investigations

C&IH offers standardized and specialized approaches to indoor air quality testing depending on the needs of each client. We employ a risk-based paradigm to IEQ investigations allowing us to focus our efforts on identifying and/or remediating the most significant risk factors in cases where multiple factors may be present. By customizing our approach and utilizing a risk-based paradigm, C&IH can prioritize potential solutions, control costs, and provide clients with an affordable solution to their IEQ concerns. Our expert IEQ team includes chemists, engineers, industrial hygienists, microbiologists, and toxicologists with a broad base of skills and knowledge essential for successful identification and control of IEQ problems. As such, C&IH can provide our clients with many IEQ support services not generally offered by other environmental or industrial hygiene consulting firms.

Examples of IEQ Projects Completed by C&IH

• Indoor air quality testing in response to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and Building Related Illness (BRI) complaints including real-time measurement of IEQ parameters and collection and analysis of chemical, physical, and microbiological IEQ contaminants
• Exposure and risk assessments for chemical, physical, and biological agents
• Pre-construction indoor air quality consulting including computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling and post-construction air monitoring for LEED IEQ parameters, such as LEED certification sampling
• Consulting and testifying expert services in support of residential and commercial litigation related to exposure and risk assessment, regulatory compliance, and state-of-the-art work practices
• Remediation specification development and remedial contractor oversight for cleanup and control of chemical, physical, and biological agents derived from sub-surface, internal, and external sources including heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) decontamination
• Development and implementation of facility-wide building system and HVAC operations and maintenance (O&M) programs