Ventilation Relevant Contaminants of Concern in Commercial Buildings Screening Process and Results

Abstract

The government and the facility operator make no express or implied warranty as to the conditions of the research or any intellectual property, generated information, or product made or developed under this agreement, or the ownership, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose of the research or resulting product: that the goods, services, materials, products, processes, information, or data to be furnished hereunder will accomplish intended results or are safe for any purpose including the intended purpose; or that any of the above will not interfere with privately owned rights of others. Neither the government nor the facility operator shall be liable for special, consequential, or incidental damages attributed to such research or resulting product, intellectual property, generated information, or product made or delivered under this agreement. Financial SupportThe research reported here was supported by the California Energy Commission Public Interest Energy Research Program, award number 500-09-049. ABSTRACTThis report summarizes the screening procedure and its results for selecting contaminants of concern (COC), whose concentrations are affected by ventilation in commercial buildings. Many pollutants comprising criteria pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) and biological contaminants are found in commercial buildings. In this report, we focus primarily on identifying potential volatile organic COC, which are impacted by ventilation. In the future we plan to extend this effort to inorganic gases and particles. Our screening considers compounds detected frequently in indoor air and compares the concentrations to health-guidelines and thresholds. However, given the range of buildings under consideration, the contaminant sources and their concentrations will vary depending on the activity and use of the buildings. We used a literature review to identify a large list of chemicals found in commercial-building indoor air. The VOCs selected were subject to a two stage screening process, and the compounds of greater interest are included in priority List A. Other VOCs that have been detected in commercial buildings are included in priority List B. The compounds in List B, were further classified into groups B1, B2, B3, B4 in order of decreasing interest.

Estimated effect of ventilation and filtration on chronic health risks in U.S. offices, schools, and retail stores

“…This study considers the effects of VR and filtration on chronic health risks from exposures to VOCs and PM2.5. A screening analysis was performed (Parthasarathy et al., ) to identify VOCs frequently detected in indoor air at concentrations that are of potential concern when compared with health guidelines and odor thresholds. Based on that analysis, 15 VOCs commonly measured in indoor air in schools, offices, and retail buildings are included in this study.…”

Do time‐averaged, whole‐building, effective volatile organic compound ( VOC ) emissions depend on the air exchange rate? A statistical analysis of trends for 46 VOC s in U . S . offices

“…Nor, as a general rule, can chronic impacts be linked to occupant perceptions or sensitivities (Seppänen and Fisk, ). The typical method for assessing chronic impacts is to use the average indoor concentration as a proxy for occupant exposure – a reasonable assumption, for most VOCs (Sexton et al., ) – and compare it to any established chronic exposure thresholds (Logue et al., ; Parthasarathy et al., ,b) or use it in concentration‐response functions (Chan et al., ; Logue et al., ).…”

Evaluation of the indoor air quality minimum ventilation rate procedure for use in California retail buildings

“…The CoCs were based on VOCs and aldehydes previously identified in commercial‐building indoor environments by Parthasarathy et al. (). A more extensive analysis of the data in this work was performed in the LBNL report (Dutton et al., ), that included particles, ozone, and carbon monoxide.…”