NIOSH testimony on indoor air quality before the Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Agriculture Research and Environment Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, US House of Representatives by P. J. Bierbaum, September 27, 1989

Technical Report · Wed Sep 27 00:00:00 EDT 1989

OSTI ID:6831999

Testimony considered the activities of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the area of indoor air quality. Energy conservation concerns in the 1970s forced the construction of buildings with the key element being preventing infiltration of untempered outside air. Many buildings were effectively sealed against air entry. Requests for health-hazard evaluations due to a suspected poor quality of indoor air have increased dramatically in recent years. Indoor-air-quality problems may arise from a variety of sources including human metabolic activity, smoking, structural components of the building and contents, biological contamination, office and mechanical equipment, and outside air pollutants that enter the building. Many times the symptoms and health complaints reported by workers were diverse and not specific enough to readily identify the causative agent. The results from the health hazard evaluations have enabled NIOSH to classify the findings by primary type of problem: contamination from the building materials, 4%; microbial contamination, 5%; other contamination from inside the building, 15%; contamination from outside the building, 10%; inadequate ventilation, 53%; and unknown, 13%. Ergonomic and psychosocial issues often complicated the findings.

• Research Organization: National Inst. for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6831999
• Report Number(s): PB-90-193822/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
BUILDINGS
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
XENOBIOTICS
HEALTH HAZARDS
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
SURVEYS
TOXIC MATERIALS
VENTILATION
AIR POLLUTION
HAZARDS
MATERIALS
POLLUTION
SAFETY
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology