Proactive Indoor Air Quality Surveys Conducted in Metropolitan New York Commercial Buildings Between Jack Springston, CIH, CSP William Esposito, CIH Keith Cleversey, MS ambient group, inc. New York, NY

Proactive IAQ Surveys n 757 surveys in 125 commercial office buildings n Conducted between June 1992 and December 1998 n Sampling strategy based on EPA’s Protocol for Characterizing Indoor Air Quality in Large Office Buildings

Proactive IAQ Surveys n Sampling included CO2, CO, and TVOC’s n 17,500+ samples collected n Sampling for gaseous contaminants performed using a Brüel & Kjær Multi- gas Monitor Type 1302

B&K 1302 Monitor n Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (PAS) n Detection limit is gas-dependent but typically ppm region n Use different filters to measure up to 5 component gases plus water vapor

B&K 1302 Monitor n For this study, we measured VOC’s, CO and CO2 n Used two different filters for VOC’s – 3.4um for “common” VOC’s – 3.6um for formaldehyde

VOC Sampling n Organic compounds detected at center wavelength 3.4 µm include: Butane, Ethyl benzene, Ethanol, Formic acid, Methyl ethyl ketone, Naphta, Petroleum distillates, Toluene, Turpentine, and Xylene n Detection limit = mg/m 3

VOC Sampling n Organic compounds detected at center wavelength 3.6 µm include: Acetaldehyde, Acrolein, Formaldehyde, N-Methyl-Methanamine, Triethylamine n Detection limit = 0.07 mg/m 3

Applicable Standards n Carbon Dioxide – ASHRAE - OA + 700ppm – OSHA and ACGIH ppm n Carbon Monoxide – EPA NAAQS (8 hour) - 9ppm – WHO (8 hour) - 10ppm – ACGIH - 25ppm – OSHA - 50ppm

Applicable Standards n TVOC’s – No official standards or guidelines exist – OSHA and ACGIH - target and action limits of 1 and 5 mg/m 3 discussed – European community - target guideline of 0.3 mg/m 3 has been discussed – Molhave - objective health effects noted at >3 mg/m 3 (Discomfort Range)

Carbon Dioxide Results n CO 2 readings ranged from 357 to 1960ppm n Mean value = 620.4ppm (SD = 145.4ppm) n Median value = 586ppm n 97.52% of all readings were <1000ppm

Carbon Monoxide Results n CO readings ranged from 0.0 to 60.3ppm n Mean value = 1.61ppm (SD =1.24ppm) n Median value = 1.43ppm n 99.77% of all readings were <9ppm

TVOC’s 3.4um Results n Group I readings ranged from <0.036 to mg/m 3 n Mean value = 1.23 mg/m 3 (SD = 1.52 mg/m 3 ) n Median value = 0.99 mg/m 3 n 96.85% of all readings were <3 mg/m 3

TVOC’s 3.6um Results n Group II readings ranged from <0.07 to mg/m 3 n Mean value = 0.41 mg/m 3 (SD = 0.68 mg/m 3 ) n Median value = 0.23 mg/m 3 n 99.51% of all readings were <3 mg/m 3

Conclusions n Results indicate that a majority of the CO, CO 2 and TVOC readings from non-complaint buildings were within their respective guideline values n TVOC results suggest that proposed European guideline of 0.3mg/m 3 may be too stringent