1. AirAssess
A Smartphone App to help workers identify & resolve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) issues
Todd Irick, M.Sc., CIH Occupational Hygienist

2. How common are IAQ problems?

3. IAQ starts with symptoms:
Increased prevalence of non-specific, common symptoms:
headache
fatigue
irritated eyes, nose, throat and/or skin
symptoms clear when away from building
commonly called “Sick Building Syndrome” (SBS)
but more accurately referred to as “building related non-specific symptoms” (BRS) or specifically (e.g. mucous membrane irritation)

4. THERMAL
COMFORT
(temp, RH, temp
fluctuations)
2. VENTILATION
(outdoor air intake,
air movement)
CHEMICAL
CONTAMINANTS
(from inside or outside)
4. BIOLOGICAL
CONTAMINANTS
(allergens)
HOW I FEEL AT WORK
IN MY BUILDING
5. ERGONOMIC
FACTORS
(lighting, noise,
workstation design)
7. PERSONAL
FACTORS
(age, sex, allergies,
smoking)
6. WORKPLACE
STRESS
(job content, pace,
control, support)

5. How do you measure this?

6. Standards and Guidelines
ASHRAE “Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality” states:
3. ”acceptable indoor air quality: air in which there are no known contaminants at harmful concentrations as determined by cognizant authorities and with which a substantial majority (80% or more) of the people exposed do not express dissatisfaction.”
ASHRAE Standard “Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy” states:
3. “environment, acceptable thermal: a thermal environment that a substantial majority (more than 80%) of the occupants find thermally acceptable.”

7. HEALTH CANADA: Indoor Air Quality in Office Buildings: A Technical Guide
ASHRAE (Temperature, Relative Humidity, Carbon Dioxide)
summer: oC RH)
winter: oC RH)
CO2 no more than 700 ppm above outdoor (typically ~400 ppm)
Contaminants
Carbon Monoxide (CO): 5 ppm
Formaldehyde: 0.1 ppm
Particulate (less than 10 microns – PM10): 50 ug/m3 annual average
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): target 1 mg/m3 = 1000 ug/m3
(approximately 0.4 ppm = 400 ppb)

8. Mycotoxins Glucans Endotoxins
Types of Air Quality Factors, Contaminants & Toxins
Allergens
Mycotoxins Glucans Endotoxins
RADON
Tobacco Smoke
Course Fine Ultra-fine ORGANIC DUST
OZONE
Dioxins
Asbestos, Pesticides, Lead Dust etc.
PAH’s, Aldehydes, Ethers, etc.
Heavy Metals
CO CO NOx
solvents cleaning agents infectious agents
VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOC’s)
COMBUSTION POLLUTANTS
VENTILATION, TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY
WELL UNDERSTOOD PARTIALLY UNDERSTOOD LITTLE UNDERSTOOD

9. Here’s how it works:

21. The future …
Real-time, intelligent ventilation systems linked to occupants via an app
Konis & Zhang, “Occupant-Aware Energy Management - Simulated Energy Savings Achievable Through Application of Temperature Setpoints Learned Through End-User Feedback”, ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA SimBuild 2016: Building Performance Modeling Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, 2016

22. Preventing Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
Say what?!?

23. … just to be clear about what we’re trying to prevent …
normal hearing cells
damaged hearing cells

24. What do we already know? 3 little bones in the ear
noise causes hearing loss
we have noisy workstations
hearing protection is available … but …
we can reduce the noise (… pretty expensive, though, isn’t it?)
as we age our hearing deteriorates

25. stats
“last five years, the annual costs for noise induced hearing loss claims for all sectors in Ontario exceeded $50 million per year,” (MOL 2014)
the WSIB showed a steady increase in NIHL registered claims from claims in 2005 to 5416 claims in 2009 (WSIB, 2011)
Masterson et al. (2013) found 18% of 1,122,722 worker audiograms collected from the NIOSH OHL Surveillance Project met the NIOSH criteria for NIHL
Stekelenburg (1982) noted that: “… even if 80 dBA is taken as a time weighted average limit … 10% of the exposed population will not be protected against impaired social hearing caused by noise.” (page 408)

26. “Over a 45-year working life,
16% of construction workers developed COPD,
11% developed parenchymal radiological abnormality, and
73.8% developed hearing loss.”

27. Vocal Cord Nodules - teachers

28. What’s the most common used solution to noise concerns?

29. effectiveness of hearing protectors

30. effectiveness of hearing protectors
13 dB

31. Whatever way you look at it, this is not the permanent solution!
… nor even a very effective temporary one.

32. Preventing noise purchasing policy (new machinery <75 dBA)
vibration control (isolators, damping)
quiet materials for conveyors, bins (noiseless steel, plastic coatings, etc.)
silencers, mufflers, specially designed compressed air nozzles
balancing rotating parts, avoiding harmonic frequencies, etc.
avoiding impacts in process flow (slide instead of drop)
enclosures, barriers, curtains
sound absorbing acoustic wall/ceiling treatment
increasing distance from source

33. Prevention Opportunities
Best
Good
Temporary
check on effectiveness
of controls
source > path > exposure > target > disease
too late!!
at the source  BEST
eliminate, enclose, silencers, fix, specify
along the path  GOOD
barriers, curtains, absorbers
at the worker  TEMPORARY
PPE, audiometry, rotating exposures

34. Motivations: business case (can we save $ doing it?)
due diligence (compliance/liability)
WSIB claims
awareness
Internal Responsibility System (IRS)
personal experience of NIHL (self, family, co-worker)

35. The business case for preventing occupational disease:
“Industrial safety is profitable only when direct and indirect costs associated with accidents exceed the cost of eliminating those accidents, and, …
… by the same token, management has even less of an incentive to moderate the negative health effects flowing from a workplace as very few of the costs associated with industrial illness are absorbed by the industry that produces them.”
Robert Sass, “Alternative Policies in the Administration of Occupational Health and Safety Programs” Economic and Industrial Democracy 8: (1987)

36. Legislation
July 1, 2016 O.Reg. 381/15 finally extended the noise requirements to all workers in Ontario
The first efforts to do this began in 1979
However, we know that some workers will still loose their hearing at between dBA Lex,8 (≈10%)

37. Noise Legislation: O.Reg. 381/15
employers take all measures reasonably necessary in the circumstances to protect workers from exposure to hazardous sound levels.
protective measures against noise exposure include engineering controls, work practices and personal protective equipment.
assessment of noise levels in the shall be done without regard to any use of personal protective equipment.
every employer shall ensure that no worker is exposed to a sound level greater than an equivalent sound exposure level of 85 dBA, Lex,8.

38. solution: on-line calculator …

39. Noise Legislation: O.Reg. 381/15 (continued)
the employer shall protect workers from exposure to a sound level greater than 85 dBA, Lex,8 without requiring the use of personal protective equipment.
personal protective equipment is only to be used if engineering controls,
do not existence or are not obtainable;
are not reasonable or not practical to adopt, install or provide because of the duration or frequency of the exposures or because of the nature of the process, operation or work;
are rendered ineffective because of a temporary breakdown of such controls; or
are ineffective to prevent, control or limit exposure because of an emergency.

40. Noise Legislation: O.Reg. 381/15 (continued)
if engineering controls can’t be used then workers shall wear and use personal protective equipment appropriate in the circumstances to protect them from exposure to a sound level greater than 85 dBA, Lex,8
a clearly visible warning sign shall be posted at every approach to an area in the workplace where the sound level regularly exceeds 85 dBA.
“An employer who provides a worker with a hearing protection device shall also provide adequate training and instruction to the worker in the care and use of the device, including its limitations, proper fitting, inspection and maintenance and, if applicable, the cleaning and disinfection of the device.”

41. Compliance?
What percentage of workplaces with noise exposures over an Lex,8 of 85 dBA are currently in full compliance with O.Reg. 381/15?
90%
75%
50%
25%
10% 1%
none
my guess ….

42. Which activities is most effective?
Policy and Practice in Health and Safety p
“In 2005, the Swedish Work Environment Authority inspected 1,721 workplaces in two days. To evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign, a web- based questionnaire was sent to inspected workplaces. The same questionnaire was sent to matched controls, i.e. workplaces that were not inspected but otherwise resembled, as far as possible, those that were inspected. On average, inspected workplaces had implemented 2.5 types of action against noise after the campaign, whereas the controls had implemented only %of the inspected workplaces reported that the activities of the Authority were the reason for the actions they had taken against noise. The study shows that the inspection campaign was highly successful in getting organisations to introduce noise prevention measures.”

43. Who can measure?

44. anyone can measure noise …
NIOSH has reviewed various noise measurement apps and found that some do a reasonable job of measuring sound (and some not so reasonable)
e.g. SPLnFFT (US$5.49)

45. app to measure reverberation
RevMeter Pro – an app to estimate the reverberation time in a room (≈ $7)
ANSI S Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools
“Unoccupied classroom levels must not exceed 35 dBA
The signal-to-noise ratio should be at least +15 dB
Unoccupied classroom reverberation must not surpass 0.6 seconds in smaller classrooms or 0.7 seconds in larger rooms”

46. Online Audiometric test:

47. Crowd-source dB(A) levels:
pick a date: how about International Noise Awareness Day (last Wednesday in April (April 26, 2017))
make it known (social media?)
coordinate data collection; your results to:
supervisor, H&S rep,
union,
OHCOW,
MOL?
create a form to accompany measurements:
location, job, firm, noise sources, number of workers exposed, time exposed
levels over 85 dBA (what about 80 dBA?)
is the a sign up?
type of hearing protection? how often used? training?
have engineering controls been considered (provide list)?
audiometric testing?

48. … lot’s to do!