• The Problem Defined
• Government Standards
• Improving Indoor Air Quality
• Ventilation Problems In Closed Schools
• Ventilation Problems in Schools With Windows
• Temperature and Relative Humidity
• Copying Equipment
• Pesticides
• Vocational and Art Classes
• Science Rooms and Laboratories
• Air Quality During Renovation Work
• Coal-Fueled Boilers
• Pollution From Outside Sources
• Resolving Indoor Air Quality Problems

Stong Pollutant Sources

POLLUTANT SOURCE	CONTAMINANTS PRODUCED
Combustion products released by improperly functioning hot water heaters and boilers; buses and other vehicles idling by windows or air intakes.	Contain carbon monoxide which can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness and is sometimes fatal. Can also produce nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds.
Kitchens and rest rooms.	Odors and chemical vapors and gases (from cleaners and disinfectants, for example).
Laboratories and chemical storerooms.	Chemical vapors and gases.
Art rooms.	Chemical vapors and gases and dusts.
Large scale copiers.	Ozone, heat and toner dust. NOTE: Most copiers today have ozone filters, so they should not be a significant source of ozone gas, a strong lung irritant.
Vocational shops.	Use of oils, lubricants, cleaners, paints, thinners.
Construction activity.	Dusts, volatile organic compounds, irritant gases.
Pesticides.	Pesticides are toxic and are often mixed with noxious volatile organic compounds.
Biological organisms including molds, bacteria, insects, rodents and dust mites.	These organisms produce contaminants called bioaerosols — which, when inhaled, can cause allergic reactions.

Government Standards

Are there any government standards for indoor air quality that can be used to protect school employees and students?

The New York City building code requires mechanical ventilation for indoor spaces with no windows or windows that don’t open (for interior spaces that have windows that do not open). The Building Code also specifies the amount of outside air per building occupant that mechanical ventilation must supply — 15 cubic feet of outside air per minute (cfm) per person. So if you have 30 people in an interior classroom, the ventilation system must provide 450 cfm of outside air (30 people x 15 cfm) throughout the time the space is occupied.

One way to indirectly evaluate outside air supplies is to measure carbon dioxide levels indoors. Carbon dioxide is a product of human respiration (exhaled breath) and can build up in rooms which are underventilated or overcrowded.

A carbon dioxide level of 1000 ppm (parts per million) is equivalent to 15 cfm of outside air per person.

When carbon dioxide levels exceed 1000 ppm, it usually means the rooms are not receiving enough outside air for the number of occupants.

Because these building code requirements deal primarily with comfort issues rather than fire and life safety issues (for example, blocked exits), they are more difficult to enforce.

The building code also sets requirements for the amount of functioning window space per square foot — so that one window in a classroom is not sufficient. The code does not address air quality problems that arise from specific activities within schools (e.g., no standards for local exhaust ventilation in art classes) and sets no standards for the maintenance of mechanical ventilation systems. There are no local, state, or federal indoor air quality standards.

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