Indoor Air Quality in Office Buildings: A Technical Guide

Author

Tedd Nathanson, Senior Engineer, Building Air Quality
Public Works and Government Services Canada

Federal-Provincial Working Group
on Indoor Air Quality in the Office Environment

Herb Wooley, Chairperson - Saskatchewan

Quang Bach Pham - Quebec
Dan Clark - Alberta
Greg Cook - New Brunswick
Leonard Gallant - Prince Edward Island
Shelley Gray - Nova Scotia
John Kirkbride - Health and Welfare Canada
David Leong - Ontario
Dennis Nikkel - Manitoba
Robert Smith - British Columbia
Sylvester Wong - Northwest Territories

Secretariat

David Green - Health and Welfare Canada
Gemma Kerr - Public Works Canada
Tedd Nathanson - Public Works Canada

Editors

Joy McDonell
Marla Sheffer

Funding for this project was provided by
Department of National Health and Welfare

Definitions

Building-related illness
A specific illness with a known cause that is a result of exposure to an indoor agent. Examples are Legionnaire's disease and Pontiac fever.

Health
A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Indoor air quality
The physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of indoor air in non-residential workplaces with no internal industrial processes or operations that can affect the comfort or health of the occupant.

Sick building syndrome
A set of symptoms related to chemical, particulate or biological exposure that cannot be related to a specific cause but are alleviated when the occupant leaves the building. Individuals report symptoms such as headaches, nausea, fatigue and drowsiness, to eye, nose, and throat irritation.

Stressors
Environmental parameters, such as lighting, noise, vibration, ergonomics, overcrowding and other psychosocial issues which may affect a person's perception and satisfaction of the built environment and indoor air quality.

Thermal comfort
A state of mind in which a person feels satisfaction with the thermal environment. The factors affecting thermal comfort are air temperature, mean radiant temperature, stratification, air motion, relative humidity, activity level and clothing.

Ventilation rate
The amount of outside air that is supplied to the interior space.

Acronyms

ACGIH

American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists

AHU

Air handling unit

ASHRAE

American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers

FID

Flame ionization detector

GC

Gas chromatography

HVAC

Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning

IAQ

Indoor air quality

MS

Mass spectrometry

PCBs

Polychlorinated biphenyls

PID

Photoionization detector

RSP

Respirable suspended particulates

SBS

Sick building syndrome

TLV

Threshold limit value

TVOC

Total volatile organic compounds

VOC

Volatile organic compound

Units

mm

Micrometre (micron, M)

CFU

Colony-forming units

g

Gram

L

Litre

m

Metre

m³

Cubic metre

min

Minute

ppb

Parts per billion

ppm

Parts per million

s

Second