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 |
|