Indoor Air Quality Reports for 2002

by Indiana State Department of Health

What do you do when you find a white dust on your desk in the morning?  Your son breaks a mercury thermometer that falls on new carpeting?  The bathroom at the office has mold all over the ceiling?  Your child comes home from school with a headache every day?

These questions arise every day.  Local health departments usually get the calls and respond as best they can.  Some of the calls go to a team of specialists at the Indiana State Department of Health.  Ron Clark or Lee Murrow went in the field to monitor indoor air quality 58 times in 2002. 

In April 2002, the Indiana General Assembly enacted SEA-407.  SEA-407 requires that ISDH inspect when it receives a complaint about the quality of air in a public or private school.  ISDH must report the results of the inspection to the person filing the complaint, the principal, the local health department, and the Indiana State Board of Education.  If you want to make a complaint, please put your complaint in writing and send it to John Ruyack of ISDH at Jruyack@isdh.state.in.us.  Please note that the law did not give ISDH additional funds to conduct these inspections so you may have to wait for the inspection. 

ISDH provides this valuable service to Hoosiers.  Two people do most of the work and the mandate to inspect schools provided no additional resources.  To their credit, most reports were completed within two weeks of sampling.

Thanks to the public records law, IKE obtained a copy of the 58 reports for 2002 as well as 44 assays ISDH ran on samples submitted to it. 

Which schools were inspected?

Where were inspections done?

Please note that IKE removed the names and addresses for the 44 residences investigated.  There are many ways to look at these reports but here are some statistics that may help:

·         Contaminants Checked

o        Formaldehyde:  15 locations checked.  Two locations showed levels over the suggested indoor air quality guideline of 0.1 ppm of air.

o        Mercury:  6 locations checked primarily for broken thermometers.  Levels detected at all locations.

o        Asbestos:  39 samples submitted to ISDH.  Asbestos (chrysotile) confirmed in 20 samples.

o        Carbon Dioxide:  36 locations checked. 31 locations had mold concerns.  4 locations (all schools) exceed 2000 ppm.  19 locations (11 schools) exceeded ISDH’s recommended levels.

o        Relative Humidity:  38 locations checked. 32 locations had mold concerns.  11 locations (6 schools) exceeded industry recommended maximum level of 60% relative humidity.

o        Fungal (Mold) Counts:  31 locations checked.  7 locations had indoor levels greater than outdoor levels.  7 locations hade counts over 1000 fungal colonies per cubic meter of air.

o        Bacteria Counts:  31 locations checked.  15 locations had indoor levels greater than outdoor levels.  5 locations hade counts over 100 bacteria colonies per cubic meter of air. 

·         Types of Facilities Checked:

o        58 total visits 

o        10 offices

o        28 residences

o        20 schools

·         Organization Making Request for Inspection

o        4 state or local agencies

o        17 schools

o        22 residents

o        15 local health departments (plus 39 samples submitted by local health departments)

o        2 other

The review raised three concerns:

1.                   Is it worthwhile to sample the air for mold without identifying the type of mold or thoroughly investigating the sources of mold?  The sample can give a false assurance that there is no problem.  The ISDH inspector points out these problems when it samples the indoor air but a thorough evaluation for moisture and mold may be a much more difficult but worthwhile undertaking.

2.                   Should more guidance be provided to help the user better address the results of the sampling?  ISDH typically includes a standard, short paragraph on each contaminant checked.  It would be helpful to better identify additional references and information. 

3.                   How representative is the sampling if it is not done early in the morning?  Many schools turn off the ventilation systems during the night and on weekends.  The air becomes stagnant and contaminants can build up.  It is this air that can most impact students and staff.

IKE will work with ISDH to address these concerns.