Sustainable Building Technical Manual - Etn-presco.net

Design PrinciplesDesign for improved indoor air quality involves four interrelated principles (Figure 2) thatshould be implemented as a whole: source control, ventilation control, occupant activitycontrol, and building maintenance.Figure 2FOUR PRINCIPLES OF INDOOR AIR QUALITY DESIGNSource ControlThere are many sources of potentially harmful air contaminants in buildings (Figure 3).Contaminants may originate indoors, outdoors, from occupants, and from within themechanical system of the building. VOCs and MVOCs may be emitted into the air frombuilding materials, products, equipment, and furniture. 10 Pollutant sources can be controlled,reduced, or eliminated to produce a healthier indoor environment. Strategies forsource control are listed below.❑ Set source-control priorities that are feasible within the project budget, projectschedule, and available technology.Priority materials for source control are materials that will be prevalent in the buildingand are the most highly volatile (that is, they emit odors, releasing irritating and potentiallytoxic chemicals to the air, or may be susceptible to microbial growth). Identifyand evaluate the priority materials, equipment, and furniture for use on the project.❑ Establish the building owner’s and occupants’ criteria and guidelines forimproved IAQ.❑ Request Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) for priority materials from productmanufacturers.OSHA regulations stipulate that product manufacturers must provide MSDSs withinformation on chemical identification, hazardous ingredients, physical/chemicalcharacteristics, fire/explosion hazard data, reactivity data, health hazard data, spill andleak procedures, special protection information, and special precautions. However,MSDSs provide limited IAQ information, in part because the regulations do not requirethe identification of proprietary information or chemicals. Therefore, MSDSs shouldnot be relied upon as the sole source of IAQ information, although they may providethe first level of information on potential IAQ concerns for some materials. In manycases, they may be the only source of information because “acceptable” third-partyemissions testing information is not readily available.