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River Place Technologies, LLC (RPT) provides accurate state of the art monitoring of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). 24/7 Data compiled by the monitoring equipment is archived both electronically and with hard copy. RPT also provides the technology that allows our clients remote monitoring of their facilities.
Following is a potion of information available on Indoor Air Quality provided by Aerias Air Quality Sciences; an indoor air quality resource center (www.aerias.org).
Please contact RPT with additional questions on IAQ or monitoring devices and procedures.
Why is there so much concern about indoor air quality?
Indoor air pollutants pose serious environmental exposures to people, especially as people spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors. Exposure can cause some people to experience adverse health effects and poor IAQ in commercial buildings can lower worker productivity. In addition, studies have shown that poor IAQ can adversely impact learning among school children, in addition to making allergy and asthma General IAQ symptoms worse.
Basic Facts about Indoor Air Quality
- General IAQ
- Building-related symptoms
- Health effects associated with IAQ
- Mold
- Ventilation
- IAQ in schools and at work
General IAQ
- Americans spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors.
- Indoor air can be as much as 100 times more polluted than outside air. These pollutants pose serious environmental exposures to people.
- The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calls indoor air pollution one of the greatest risks to human health.
- Indoor air can pose a risk to human health, including asthma, cancer, reproductive and developmental problems.
- US companies could save as much as $200 billion in worker performance improvements by creating offices with better indoor air.
- The average household of four adds between three and six gallons of water to the indoor air in a day.
- One of every 15 homes in the US has radon levels above the EPA's recommended action level.
Building-Related Symptoms (also called Sick Building Syndrome)
- A US Environmental Protection Agency report found that illness and lost productivity due to indoor air pollution, commonly called "sick building syndrome" (SBS) or building-related symptoms (BRS), costs businesses $60 billion annually.
- Occupants of buildings with BRS complain of eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, dry cough, dry or itchy skin, dizziness, nausea, difficulty in concentrating, fatigue and sensitivity to odors.
- Heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are a primary cause of the majority of BRS problems.
Health Effects Associated With IAQ
- Allergies, which affect about 20 percent of the population, and asthma, a debilitating condition, are worsened by indoor air polluton. Asthma has increased 160 percent in the past 15 years.
- Building-related illnesses include sinusitis, bronchitis, asthma, humidifier fever, dermatitis, Legionnaires' Disease, and Pontiac Fever.
- Asthma is the sixth ranking chronic condition in the US and the leading serious chronic illness of children in the US.
- Approximately 40 million Americans are affected by allergies.
- An estimated 17 million Americans have from asthma.
- An estimated 1500 people die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning.
- Legionnaires' disease affects 10,000 to 15,000 people each year
- Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS or secondhand smoke) causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmoking Americans each year.
- Toxins from indoor mold and bacteria can result in effects ranging from short-term irritation to immunosuppression to cancer.
- Smoking is the third leading cause of preventable death in the United States today.
- Numerous indoor contaminants are carcinogens (i.e. benzene and radon or likely to cause cancer (i.e. certain pesticides, chlorinated solvents, and aldehydes).
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