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t • • -3- U.S. businesses are having enough trouble trying to compete in the global marketplace and do not need this type of counterproductive regulatory zeal. Business wants good, sound and comprehensive thinking from the government. Imagine the justifiable public outcry if the base-closing commission made its recent recommendations without conducting a comprehensive study of the broad social and economic implications of its action. While painful to many communities and to the businesses which served these facilities, Americans have reacted with general respect for the fair and even-handed approach taken by the Commission. We should demand no less from the EPA. If there is evidence of significant risk associated with indoor air pollution, then it should be studied rigorously -- but honestly. Based on sound scientific data, a total approach can be developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to set standards for total indoor air quality. Once these standards are set, individual businesses should be allowed to meet them in ways that best suit their particular situations. Research on compliance with air and water pollution regulations clearly show that allowing flexibility is far less costly and more effective than having remote authorities impose cookie-cutter responses to each particular pollutant. More than ever, Americans want to have confidence in their institutions of government. President Clinton made this a cornerstone of his campaign. Environmental policy is a good place to start. no d V ~ ~ t+7 O 4

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Thnndry, FeairBy 27, T9fi 10-CLASSIFIED 40 TYl~eu-rOY Poll links indoor air to office workers' ills Hy Paut Schnitt ie. 5uff w'rher Two a.t of frve downtown Sacra- nrenro office wvricers queanoned in an informal poll say their work would improve if the air they breathed on the ph was ckanr and fresher According to the survey, rdeased Wednesday, many conpWned of symptoms such as drednass (30 paromr ot tho.e poYadt, he.d.cM RS percent), wnary or Ydry.ya R I petarq and ffwhk. diacosfart al p«nenn. Nan t6.n haft d tlw apperaF. snatdy 200 oMc. +rort.n pollb ridtlh.ymokaf M.wasrdqoQg y..r dttp b tlma o00.fallad .L OWA>• Aairw--~~--. !I[tlrddhYke Of tlM a9iYN'dfJt 11ddw4 W* dror; wlkA syalMfan at8e.Will" Typicalty. the symptoms go away after workers lave the butldoK The Sacramento survey was done Wr fa0 for Heahhy Buildinp Inrernaoorul, the cwntry's lartest udoor .ir quaiity cnrruhinj firm. which conducted similar polls in Los Angeles. San Franctsco Md three otlter West Cosst aues. The offia workern were qua- tiomd raMomly on the stroes As a toBow-up, oampany o![Sdalf held a free half•day senisto WatYraBay in Sacranento on irr door bsaYh problems for pnqarty eanaprs, bnldtnt d~4saaa. on afwaa a,d Iu,e ernpioyaea 'Wt make no 6ow Noat 4, nw'n a pmAt-motlvawN aa.y.rty and we're doisg 1t to h. tnaw our husi iisow Nid qmy AoAafboa. presid„t of Nyrlq . *Ad.ih a V'uptr.mwasxq. 9t wt dun ohNay 61111111111 .he afb.dad the a.aiy-IM& ~WE

: s I ' When Your Offk Feeling woozy and'don't know why? It may be tht RYKAiHERINEGRIFFIN "tight" building, where occupants are completely dependent on a central vem t looked to be a good year far tilatiou system for the air they breathe James Miles. The software - and whatever gets into the ventilating company he'd started five system gets into the workers' lungs as years earlier. Phoenix Cnm- well. puters, had just moved into TheEnvironmentalProtectionAgen- fancy quarters on the 12th cy ranks indoor alr pollution - in both floor of a new highrise in El Se. homes and offices - as one of the five gundo. Callfornia most urgent environmental Issues fn the C ) It was an absolutely gor- I.nstedStates.Theagencyestmtatesthat ~geous building," Miles recalls. 30 to 75 million workers are at risk of get- "tt had all the amenities." Elegant mar ting sick because of the buildings they blelobby,plushcarpeting•LuxuriantpoP w'orkink ted plants. windows that sealed out not.se ome builtltngborne ailments can but let in plenty of natural Gght - evSeven be fatal.ln 1991, at lheSoctet enahtng that an entrepreneur on the Security Administration building way up could want Miles and his em~ in Richmond, an outbreak of Legiom p(oyees. the building's first tenanrs, seD naires' disease thought to be caused by a tled right in. buildup of bacteria ln the ventilanun But one Friday morning a few weeks s_vstem killed two worketss after the move. accountants Louise Other forms of indoor air pollution Aldrich and Pam Connollp were workcan cause asthma and a severe lung ming m,17drlch's office when suddenly flamma[ion called hypersensitivity they began gasping for breztn. They fled the raom. coughing and ehoking, eyes pneutnonitts. A small percentage of peo- burningandtearsstreamingdowntheir Ple exposed to contsminants in office cheeks. buildings develop multiple chemical sen. Over a three-day w'eekend. the two sitivity. a heightened vulnerability W aB kinds of chemical substances. a~omen recovered enough to return to Far more often. though, workers in work on Tuesday. But withm the next tw'oweeks•almos[everyoneintheoffice sealed structures suffer from the hard. began to feel sick. -People were getting topindown but debilitating symptams headaches," Miles recalls. "They were knownassickbuildingsyndrome.[none nauseated, losing coordination. The office, workers may experience dizzi- longer you stayed in the building, the ness. headaches, nausea, burning eyes worse y'ou d feel." and nosebteeds In another. people may Miles complained to the buildin s find themselves unusually tired. coughmarmgement. `dt first the5 thought we 1Dg and sneezing, with itchy skin and thraats. Contact lens w'earers may suffer were crazy;' he says. "To prove there severe eye iMtation. w'as nothing wrong one of the managers set up shop in our offices. You know how But here's the ruh: People every- long he tasted? One day." where occasionaily come down with The problem, Miles soon learned, was these ailments and eomplaincs. So when that construction crews working in an do you blame the building, instead of unoccupied area of the same ftour were hay fever, a cold or too many nights an using strong, solventbased adhesives to the town? One tipoft tt symptoms get seal holes in the ah' ducts. And. because worse as the workday wears on and then ofadefect,thebuilding'sventilattonsys~ Impraveatnightandonw'eekendswhen tem was pumping the toxic vapors into People are home, take a closer took at Phoenix's office suite, the building. Milesconvmcedthebuilding'sowner Since the late 1979s. indoorair spe- to cut holes in the glass of some of the clahsts from the National Institute for windows in Phoenix's offlces and install Occupational Safety and Health ~NIOSHI fans to pull in more fresh air. "But even have been called in to investigate more with that." he says, "there were dead than 1,000 instances of buildingrelated zunes where no matter what you did, tllness. [n more than 50 percent of the you couldn't stay there." Several em. cases, the institute has fingered mado- ployces quit rather than work in the 4uate ventllation, followed by chemical building, and after 18 months, Miles contamination and problenus traced to gave up and moved the company out. microbiological agents such as mold; The year was 1985, and in bacteria and fungi. door air pol. lutionwasn'tsomethingJtites-ormos[ 'EVerything contrihutes" says other employers or employees - had Richard Shaughnessy, a chemical engi- thought much about. But in moving to neerwhudirectstheindoonairresearch that brandnew 24stnry highrise, program at the University of Tulsa in PhoenixComputershadsetupshapina Oklahoma. `Copiers, ventilation sys. tems, the air brought in /rom outdoors, the number of people in a work space." e 199JHeolfhMogazfne Whenworkersaresneezing,poppmg aspirin, or walking around In a daae. it's then delivers it to the occupants Adm~ time for the builtlin doctors to examine throu h a ri f d t O g g se es o uc s nce . the causes. the air has evculated, return That's ducts channel some of it out- he Bu din s Lun T g g one way to think of the ventilation system, says James Cone, an occupational health physician at the University of Catifornu at San Francisco. The unit sucks in air from outside, runs it through a bank of fil. / ' t ters, warms it or cools it. and

, e Utt.LLS IIIj:~ the building you work in needs the checkup. '°' .°' side, In most buildings, the rest of the used air is mixed with fresh alr and recirculated. Whhm this labyrinth lurk ample opportumties for trouble. ^If vou go into the dark recesses of a ventila. tion system. you'd be shocked at w'hat you'd find," Shaughnessy says, Beyond the expected dirt and dust, typical detrttus in- cludes dead mice, Insects, particles of bmlding mate rials, mold, mildew and pesticides left by care~ less exterminators Io one 14assa. chusetts building, employ'ees were plagued by itchy red bumps they thought were inseet bites. Instead, consultant David Bearg found Ioase bits of fiberglass in. sulation blowing through the ducts. New filters ended the outbreak. Not all the trouble comes from the newer, tight buildings, by the way: Some older, unsealed buildings with dfrt clogged ventilation systems are among the worst offenders.In ehhercase. when the system works well and ts kept clean, workers breathe easy. Deadly dull work and ponderous lunches aren't the only reasons office workers nod off in the afternoon. Too lib tle air might be the problem. The Amer, ican Society of Heating, Hefrigeration. and Alr Conditioning Engineers, which establishes the ventilatton standards that influence local building codes, orig- inally set a figure of 15 cubic feet of fresh outdoor air per person per minute back in the 1930s , Then, in I975, prompted by the ener- gy crisis, the group decided that office workers could make do witk five - about what the average airplane passeo- ger gets. Though the recommenduion has since been boosted back up to 20, many buildings still don't circulate enough fresh atr. This means colds and other viruses spread more easily. When U S. Army re searchers compared ailments among two groups of 400,000 recruits, some of whom were housed in older, naturally ventilated qnarters and some of whom lived in newer, tightly sealed barracks, they found that the soldiers in the closed buildings got 50 percent more colds than those who lived in quarters where they could throw open a window. When a sealed office is crammed with more people than it was designed to hold, workers get less fresh alr thaa they shoWd. The standard of 20 cubic feet assumes that no more than seven people will occupy a t,00Psquarefoot area Stuff In more workers, and more air ie needed. Then there's plain bad destgn Some times a system sucks in and spews out air that's unfit for anyone to breathe. In buildings where workers have camplatned of headaches,fatigue,and nau- sea, investigators have traced the symp. toms to carbon monoxide potsoning. How might this happen to someone shaffling papers an Ihe 18th Ooar? Eass ly,1f the building's fresh air intakes open near a parking garage or a loading dock frequented by idling trucks, One sala tion is [o put up a sign by the loading dock, telling truckers to shut their em gines off immediately. Or, if the system See Page 10 Nursing a Building Back ta HeaZth Y W walkfntayourOfflceatst immedlatetystartmsaeeae The guy in the nertcubtcle cau'twearhiscontactlensea anymore. f ate in the afternoon the afk feela so stegnaK youcan barely keep your eyes open. EverybadY passesaround colds like potato ehfp at a pienfr.. You suspect you're working m a siek btdlding, but what ea.n you do ab.utIt! baawaa T..r TTwp.s Keep a log of yom' own and yourrn warkers' complaints-who gers what symptoma when atd w here. If worket sx take their matadtes to the doctor, keep records of thase visits, too. The American College of Occupational and Envlron- mental Medicine will provide names of physicians in your areawhospecialim in occupational healm. Call me conege'sed- ucationaldepartmentatYfOg1228dg50or the Association of Occupational and Envi- ronmental Cltnicsatl202134't497ga taaY 6ord fhe gdtdiq "Workersshoutd take responsibility for checking out their ownventilation systems,"says occupational health physi- clan ]ames Cane of San Francfsco. "You can learna IoL"BYrst, ebeckthe ceiling, walls and f loor to see whether each room has a soutceof air. Take a look at the air vents.Holdapieceoftissuepaperupm ~ each one to see whether atr u actually movingin or oul Grimy vents are a sfgn of inefficientor old fitters. Furniture or partitions placed over or in front of vents may be blocking the air flow. Check around copy, printing and shreddfngnLchtnestomakesnre they are neu a functloning exbawt vent H workers have to spend fong periods of time standing over such equipment,the machlnesshouidbefocatedfooncon- tinedspaces. Askthebuildingrnmnagerbowmany cublc feet per minute of fresh outdoorair Is circulating per person. If Is'a rder 211, lt's nat enough. Note when the ventila- ltOn system Is turned oif (ymt'li knaw when the white noise from the fans smps). If it cycles off for long periods dur. Ing the day, or goes off campleteiy while many people arestig warktngln the buiWing, contammanta may he building upintheair. Ask the buf ]ding maf n tena nce super- visor when the drain pans were Iast cle,aned, fs there aregufar mamtenance schedule? Are pesticides usednear the ventilstionsystem! ¢so, what precau- tians are being taken to keep these suh• stances out of the circulating airsupplyT Find out if any construction m reno- vatian projects are under way; if so. ask what's being done to flush harmfm va. pors from the butlding. gstg.st MHa. Once you've targetedaoy hazards, you'll have to convincesomeooe to do something, starting with your etbployer. If yaur efforts meet with resistance, you might get hold of the Environmental Pro, tectian Agency's detailed guide,'Build- ing Air Quality: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Managera"It's avail, able for $24 by writing to New Orden, Su- perlntendent of Documeots, P,O. Box 371gtiS,Pfttsburgh,PAt575i17g6/.Qtefer marderproceaqngcode et03.1 You can al- so orderby tax:1202/5122258. The pubti. catianezplainshow a building manager can clean up and prevent indoorair pu4 lutlon and when expert help might be needed. It also reminds managers that their Indifference can result in disgrun tied workers, lowered producnvity, baa publicity and hefty lawsuits. Cdl l. NM gxprfs TheNatieoal Institute for Occupation- al Safety and Health's Hazard Evaluanon andTechnical Assistance Branch imesti- gatessick building outbreaks but has the tlmeand staff for only the most serious ca.xs. Hawever, a telephone hot line- ag 1800/35NIOSH-provides basic in ftrntationand referrals tostate and local healthdepartments. As sick building problems become more visible, private consultants are sprlagingup like algae m a dram pan. The EPA wlll publish a It.stof such firms within a few months. Check wtth the Pub- lic Information Center, Environmental ProtectionAgency, Washington. D.C.. 2A4G0,1282)EB0.2118n,orcallthe.firQualityOfficeatiD72i2A39030.ASitfortheSur vey of Indoor Air Quality Diagnostic and MitlgatlonFirms. Also check the local yellow pages un der Indaor AirorIndustrial HygieneCon sultants.Whoevercontractsforthescseo vittsshould ask ahout cases the company has handled before.If possible check referenees;suchfhxnsaren'tregulated.and some have little experience. -K.G.

CONTENTS ! • Occupational Hazards The Magaine of 5afety, Health and Envimnmental Managemenl j FEATURES 23 THE LEGACY OF LITTLE BOY The bomb dropped on Hiroshima helped build Oak Ridge, Tenn. In the first of our two-part series, we examine whether the environmental fallout from Little Boy could also destroy it. 28 REINVENTING INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE At an Occupational Hazards/American Industrial Hygiene Association roundtable, leading industrial hygiene managers examined the issues facing a profession immersed in change. 32 WHY EMPLOYEES ARE SICK OF INDOOR AIR Contaminants in building air can harm your workers' health, productivity, and morale. Our experts outline strategies for clearing the air of this $60 billion health problem. 37 BLOWING IN THE WIND? Protecting employees who complain about dangerous working conditions moves center stage in the OSHA reform debate. 41 TIPS FOR TERMINAL VISION Optometrist Edward Godnig explains how to avoid visual stress at computer VDTs. DEPARTMENTS 6 EDITORIAL Why the OSH Act - and OSHA - need revision. 8 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A second opinion on workers' comp. 11 OSHA PEL rule struck down...N.C. reprieve. 17 EPA Air permit rule issued...Contracts overhaul promised. MARKETPLACE 21 SAFETY & HEALTH ACGIH adopts new cancer ratings. 44 CONTESTED CASES General duty and contractors' obligations. 47 WORKERS' COMP UPDATE Texas implements Extra Hazardous Employer Program. 50 PEOPtiE & PLACES Swanson named OSHA deputy assistant secretary. 58 ADVERTISERS' INDEX 53 PRODUCT SHOWCASE Safety signs and labels mustprovide information to a diverse workforce. 54 FREE LITERATURE COVER: Photograph by S.L. Smtlh. A LIG UST 1992 page 28 11 k, August 1992/Occupational Hazards 5 2074144212

0 0 WHY EMPL4YEES ARE OF INDOOR AIR Contaminants in building air can harm your worken' health, productivity, and morale. Our experts outline strategies for clearing the air of this $60 billion health problem. By Gregg LaBar I n indoor air qual- ity lingo, a major national commu- nications company had a "crisis building" on its hands, according to researcher Stephen J. Reynolds. Employees were complaining about the air quality and nearly all of them were exhibit- ing at least one adverse health effect, including coughing, throat irrita- tion, and disorientation, explained Reynolds, as- sistant professor in the Dept. of Preventive Medicine and Environ- mental Health at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. In the course of events, the company did not docu- ment or investigate the problems. But when 31 employees sought emergency medical care, the company de- cided to evacuate the building and have tion than a dramatic example of what is a team of experts investigate. occurring in varying degrees through- The team uncovered problems with out the country. "Nearly all employers the heating, ventilation, and air condi- will end up with questions about indoor tioning (HVAC) system; improper air eventually," warns Henry B. Lick, chemical use throughout the facility;' -manager of industrial hygiene for Ford and microbial contamination. They also Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., which op- concluded that had the company ad- erates some 2,000 facilities nationwide. dressed employee concerns sooner, American adults spend about 90 per- many of the problems could have been cent of their time indoors, where con- avoided. According to Reynolds, the centrations of some contaminants have episodecostthecompanyasmuchas$1 been found to be two to five times million to shut down operations, hire higher than outdoors. Experts estimate the necessary consultants, and renovate that between 800,000 and 1.2 million the HVAC system. commercial buildings have deficiencies Reynolds'case study is less an aberra- in indoor air quality. The Em ironmen- 32 Occupational Hazards/August 1992 tat Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that IAQ problems cost American business some $60 billion annu- ally, most of it the result of lost productivity. Workers' compensation and health care costs ac- count for several billion dollars of the total, ex- perts said. Healthy Buildings In- ternational Inc. (HBI), a Fairfax, Va., IAQ con- sulting firm, estimates that an employer with 667 employees in a "sick" office building can expect to suffer pro- ductivity losses of about $200,000 annually ($300 per employee) due to employee absenteeism, assuming an IAQ-re- lated absenteeism rate ~ of 1 percent. ~ "The majority of the f costs are hard to see be- cause they're related to absenteeism, morale, and quality of work," Iowa's Reynolds said. "Medical costs are probably less than 10 percent of the total loss. There just aren't a lot of cases where there is a physician-diag- nosable illness." Sheldon H. Rabinovitz, director of industrial hygiene and toxicology for Sandler Occupational Medicine Asso- ciates, a Melville, N.Y., consulting firm, notes that while few indoor air situations are life-threatening, em- ployers still need to address IAQ con- cerns for health and economic rea- sons. "If there are complaints, the employer must do what he can to 2074144213

eliminate the problem. He cannot live with the problem," Rabinovitz said. Wide Range of Effects The variety of maladies associated with poor indoor air ranges from an- noyances and comfort concerns to seri- ous infections and even death. The more serious problems have sparked interest in indoor air quality, but the less severe problems are far more common. The case that probably did more than any other to alert Americans to "build- ing-related illness" occurred in Philadel- phia in 1976, with the outbreak of Le- gionnaires' disease (an example of microbial contamination) among guests at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel. Twenty- nine people ultimately died after breath- ing bacteria-contaminated air that was disseminated through the hotel's duct- work systems. Since then, several other outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease have been reported, as well as deaths result- ing from inhalation of fungi. In addition to the severe acute effects, a number of chronic effects can also have fatal consequences. For example, according to EPA, chronic exposure to asbestos and radon in the indoor envi- ronment is responsible for thousands of cancer deaths a year. Regular exposure to environmental tobacco smoke has been linked to thousands of excess can- cer and heart disease cases annually. At the less severe end of the spec- trum, the most common complaints in- clude eye irritation, dry throat, runny nose, headache, fatigue, skin irritation, shortness of breath, cough, dizziness, and nausea. There is no one-to-one cor- respondence between cause and effect, and in manycases, it is difficult to iso- late a specific cause or causes. According to Healthy Buildings tech- nician Michael A. Price, allergenic fungi, dusts, low relative humidity, bacteria, and chemical off-gassing from carpeting and furniture are the most common causes of IAQ problems. The pollutants remain in the air, Price said, due to poor maintenance, inefficient air filtration, poor ventilation in tltiF inter- est of conserving energy, or changes in the design and use of a building. What makes indoor air quality issues especially difficult to manage is that ef- fects can vary widely among people. For example, workers with allergies or weakened immune systems may be more susceptible to indoor air maladies than other employees. In addition, many experts believe that ergonomics and work area lighting can affect worker perceptions of the quality of the breathing air and worker comfort. Therefore, they recommend consider- ing those issues along with indoor air - a strategy of addressing the more inclu- sive concept of "indoor environmental quality" (see sidebar on these pages). There are also theories that psychqso- cial factors - stress, job satisfaction, and labor-management relations - may impact who will complain about problems they associate with poor in- door air quality. Some experts believe that generally unhappy and/or lower- paid workers are more likely to com- plain of IAQ-associated health effects. Ford's Lick estimated that psychoso- cial factors are present in about 60 per- cent of the indoor air complaints Ford receives. However, he noted that work- ers at all different levels - general man- agers to entry-level clerks - have been known to voice their concerns. He said, "In some instances, we've had every- body asking us to please do something. We knew we had a problem then." Preventing Problems Ideally, experts said, employers should be thinking about indoor air quality before their employees do. This would include, they said, making good indoor air a contractually binding re- quirement in the lease signed with the building manager. The incentive is there for both em- ployers and building managers. There have been several cases, for example, INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Just when employers, employees, and govern- ment officials were be- coming comfortable with the idea of addressing in- door air quality (IAQ), a new, more comprehen- sive concept is coming into vogue: "indoor envi- ronmental quality" (IEQ). According to Philip J. Bierbaum, director of physical sciences and en- gineering for NIOSH, IAQ-associated com- AT3T's Mitler. •Total Indoor enelranmental quality Is a better, monr arate, but we can't look at indoor air without con- sidering the other issues." "Total indoor environ- mental quality is a better, more inclusive term for dealing with the concerns of white-collar workers," added AT&T industrial hygienist Al Miller, who serves as chairman of the National Environmental Development Assn.'s To- tal Indoor Environmental Inclusive term...• Q I' TIEQ C 1'ti ua tt ( ) oa t on plaints of eye, nose, and throat irrita- tion, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and nausea cannot always be explained by indoor air factors (chemical and micro- biological contaminants, inadequate ventilation, and environmental tobacco smoke) alone. He said NIOSH, which is pushing the IEQ concept, has found that these symptoms are a result of multiple factors, with indoor air, er- gonomics, workplace stress, worksta- tion lighting, and other concerns proba- bly playing a role. "We're getting away from using the term indoor air quality because what we've found is you can solve the indoor air problem and not eliminate the symptoms," Bierbaum said. "A lot of consequences of psychosocial stress are the same as what we might expect from poor air quality. We don't know if these effects are additive, synergistic, or sep- y , a Washington, D.C., nonprofit business group formed earlier this year. "When you look at the irritant-level health ef- fects people are alleging in most cases, I think it's questionable that they could be occurring only because of the indoor air. But if you add some stress and er- gonomic concerns, perhaps that's when the problems start to show up. Psy- chosocial factors [how people interact] also appear to be a factor, but we don't know how important they are." Experts predicted that we'll be hearing much more about indoor environmental quality, which they said will focus on en- suring that employees are comfortable and productive, as well as free from ill- ness and disease - a kind of worksite- specific wellness program. Look for EPA and OSHA to take a similar tack in future research, rulemaking, and enforcement activities, experts advised. Aueu,t 1992 /Occupational Hazards 33

. 0 0 I where building owners have been sued by a tenant company's employees al- leging adverse health effects. Employ- ees have also sought, and won, work- ers' compensation benefits for IAQ health effects. As a preventive measu re, experts rec- ommend that the minimum airflow in buildings from the outside be main- tained at 20 cubic feet per minute per person, as suggested by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, son employers and building owners be- go in and start monitoring or do a me- come interested in indoor air quality. chanical evaluation," Reynolds said. "I For example, a couple of years ago, after really believe in talking to the people receiving a number of IAQ complaints, first, especially if psychosocial factors AT&T Senior Industrial Hygiene Engi- appear to be involved. Generally, the neer Al Miller assembled a task force things people are complaining about and convened a two-day conference for should get first priority." key company managers on indoor air Some individual worker problems are quality. These events ultimately led tott not difficult to resolve and can be solved the drafting of the company's 88-page of without additional investigation. But book of IAQ guidelines. It includes ad- in a lot of other cases, Reynolds said, in- vice on investigating IAQ concerns and vestigators should take the next step and WHAT 00 THESE SYMPTOMS SUGGEST? Thermal discamfort Check HVAC condition and measure temperature and humitlity. Also check for drafts and stagnant areas. Headache, lethargy, nausea, drowsiness, dizziness Congestion; swelling, itching, or irritatlon of eyes, nose, or throat; dry throat; or nonspecific symptoms Cough; shortness of hreath; lever, chills, and/or fatigue Diagnosed infection If onset was acute, arrange tor medical evaluation, because carbon monoxide poisoning may be the problem. Check combustion sources and overall ventilation. May be allergic il small number of people allecled. II many people affecled look for sources of irritating chemicals such as folmaldehyde, Check for gross microbial canlaminalion due lo sanilalion problems, waier damage, or contaminated HVAC system. May be Legionnaire's disease or hisloplasmosis, related to hactelia or fungi. Contact the state or local health depadmeni. Sourm "euiltlingAirGualilyAGuidefareuitdingownersantlFacililyManagers; EPAMIDSN.Decembert991. and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) voluntary consensus stan- dard 62-1989. ASHRAE standard 55- 1981 on "Thermal Environmental Con- ditions for Human Occupancy" recommends that office buildings have a temperature of between 68.5-76.0 F in winter'and 73-79 F in summer for maxi- mum worker comfort. Employers should also be aware of potential IAQ problems during times of renovation and maintenance, advised Randall J. Dean, a building contractor defense attorney with the Los Angeles law firm of Chapman & Glucksman. "If there is a red flag for indoor air, it's, the impact that renovation can have," Dean said. "What was adequate for nor- mal operations may not be adequate during renovation or after it's been done." Dean noted that many experts recommend that the main H V AC system be isolated from the areas being reno- vated and that redesigned work areas be closely monitored for changes in airflow. Employee complaints are a major rea- 34 Occupational Hazards/August 1992 diagnosing IAQ health effects. The AT&T guidelines, which are sim- ilar to those in the EPA/NIOSH publi- cation "Building Air Quality: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Man- agers," stress the need for a multidisci- plinary approach to investigating IAQ complaints, involving occupational health professionals, engineers, physi- cians, facilities experts, and human re- sources staff. Consultants are useful, Ford's Lick said, when a facility lacks in-house expertise or when there needs to be a third-party "tiebreaker" be- tween the building owner and tenant or between employees and the employer. Most experts say employee complaints are enough to spark indoor air quality in- vestigations and should be the basis of those investigations. Professor Reynolds recommends starting with people who have seen a doctor for their problems, have taken other documented action (i.e. left work early), or are complaining of some type of unique symptom. "The temptation of many people is to determine the extent of the problem by talking to people in other work areas and on other floors. "Indoor air is an area where if you do something for some people and not for others, people could feel slighted," HBPs Price said. Getting Feedback Experts differ on the best way to eval- uate overall worker perceptions of the indoor air quality. Some people, inctud- ing consultant Rabinovitz, advocate the use of surveys to target problem areas. "If management is thinking about do- ing something, you've already reached the stage where everybody assumes there's a problem. Employees are prob- ably upset and think management is hiding something. You may as well get the issue out in the open and get the employees involved," Rabinovitz said. Though supporting employee in- volvement, other experts don't neces- sarily like the idea of doing broad- based surveys. Ford's Lick, for example, uses focus groups as an alter- native way to gain employee input. "The one thing we definitely don't recommend is doing a buildingwide questionnaire," HBI's Price said. "Some percentage of people are going to say they have a problem just because you asked them," "If you do a survey, you have to re- member what you're getting," attomey Dean said. "Solicited complaints have to be looked at svith a greater degree of skepticism than unsolicited complaints. If you do a survey and 20 percent of the people say they have problems, that may not be significant. But if 20 percent of the people come forward on their own, that is significant." Walk-throughs, visual inspection of the ventilation system, and analyzing employee complaints will usually tell you if you have IAQ problems and where the hot spots are. Sampling for individual contaminants, i.e. formalde- rownlnn paYr 36 2074144215

GOVERNMENT ON THE BANDWAGON • ut re ,d d a .r r- Y e ,f S. C . 16 EPA and other federal agencies are bet- ter-equipped than ever to address the is- sue of indoor air quality (IAQ), Robert Axefrad, director of EPA's Indoor Air Div., said at a roundtable session during the American Industrial Hygiene Confer- ence & Exposition (AIHCE) in June. In 1990, EPA's Science Advisory Board identified poor indoor air quality as one of the top five environmental risks to human health. Since then, Axelrad said, the agency has stepped up its efforts to re- spond to indoor air problems. He noted that EPA spent only $350,000 of its multi- billiondollar budget on IAQ in fiscal 1989. However, for fiscal 1993, which begins Oct. 1,1992, Axelrad reported that EPA has asked for $6 million to fund its IAQ policy- making program and $7 million to fund ' IAQ research. "Indoor air is moving up the agenda;' Axeirad said. "This is a lot of money to spend on an area where we don't have a specific legislative mandate (like EPA does for outside air or solid waste). We could be looking for a smoking gun in the indoor air business for a long, long time. What we're trying to do is transfer what we already know to the key people." Axelrad said EPA has been focusing on the development of guidelines to help building managers address indoor air quality during design, construction, maintenance, renovation, and routine operation of public and private facilities. EPA has installed IAQ coordinators in each of its 10 regional offices to provide - technical assistance to building owners and facility managers. In December 1991, EPA and NIOSH published a 230-page manual, "Building Air Quality: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Man- agers" agers" (No. S/N 055-000-00390-4), which :'is available for $24 from: New Orders, Superintendent of Documents, Box ~ 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. : In the area of research, EPA is studying . sources and emission rates of pollutants, a variety of neurobehavioral and sensory health effects, and the assessment,Qf in- door air risks. Axelrad said a mulfimil- lion-dollar long-term study, the Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation (BASE) program, is aimed at developing . standardized solutions to IAQ problems. EPA is one of more than 20 federal agencies, along with OSHA, NIOSH, Dept. of Defense, and General Services - Administration, on the Interagency Com- mittee on Indoor Air Quality (CIAQ), which is coordinating the federal govern- ment's indoor air efforts. OSHA OSHA has received some 1,200 com- ments in response to its Sept. 29, 1991, Bierbaum said that NIOSH, which spends 2 percent of its $103 million FY 1992 budget on indoor air, is also doing research on•sampling methods for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and biological agents. IAQ request for information on the ne& . Congressional Pressure for an indoor air regulation, according to EPA's Axelrad acknowledged that Debra A. Janes of OSHA's health stan- dards office. Janes told AIHCE attendees in early June that OSHA had not decided if it will proceed with the rulemaking. She hinted that that decision might not be made until after the November general election. If OSHA does attempt rulemak- ing, she said, it will likely focus on venti- lation performance, worker training, source control, and technical assistance. Since issuing a compliance directive on some of the federal agencies' interest in indoor air is the result of recent Congressional pressure. In an October 1991 report, Congress' General Ac- counting Office concluded that "fed- eral efforts are not effectively address- ing" indoor air pollution, mostly due to insufficient funding. Several congressmen have offered legislative solutions. In the Senate, the Indoor Air Act of 1991(S. 455), authored OSHA's Debra Janes: "The lack of a standard hinders the solving of indoor air quality problems." indoor air quality in September 1990, by Sen. George Mitchell (D, Maine), Janes said, OSHA has conducted 140 in-would authorize $48.5 million for IAQ spections in response to employee com-research. The bill passed the full Senate, plaints about poor indoor air quality. If 88-7, late last year. citations are warranted, the agency uses In the House, an IAQ bill originally the general duty clause in the absence of a introduced by Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D, standard. "The lack of a standard hinders Mass.), H.R. 1066, was being reworked the solving of indoor air quality prob- at press time, with the assistance of Rep.. 11 lems;" Janes acknowledged. - . . Robert Andrews (D, N.J.). The less strin- In March, the AFL-CIO petitioned gent revision is expected to mandate OSHA to issue an indoor air quality stan- that OSHA write an IAQ standard only dard "promptly." In addition, for several if a specific number pr percentage of years, Action on Smoking and Health has ` workers complain of IAQ-related prob- been urging OSHA to regulate, and even- lems, and to more closely mirror the tually ban, workplace smoking. Despite Senate bill's focus on research. The orig- thepefitions,Janessaid,OSHA'stimetable inal bill would have required that is unlikely to change. - OSHA issue an IAQ standard. - At press time, it appeared unlikely NIOSH . that the House bill would get to the Philip J. Bierbaum, director of floor for a vote before the November. NIOSH's Div. of Physical Sciences and general election. The House could de- Engineering, reported at the AIHCE cide to vote on the Senate bill, and if it's that his agency has responded to more approved, send it to President Bush for than 1,100 requests for technical assis- , his possible signature. Throughout the tance on indoor air quality issues since current 102nd Congress, however, Bush the late 1970s. NIOSH also receives Administration officials have opposed about 200 IAQ-related inquiries a lAQlegislationandarguedthatcurrent month through its 800 number (800-356- efforts and funding levels are enough to 4674), he reported. address the indoor air problem. Augu,t 1992/Occupational Hazards 35