IAQ Compliance Auditing

Indoor air quality hazard compliance auditing is a critical component of effective Facility Management.

Employers, building owners and managers have a Duty of Care to understand the hazards within workplaces and provide a healthy and safe working environment for all staff, contractors and visitors.

A substance can only cause health affects if it comes in to contact with the human body through one or more of the four recognised pathways – inhalation, ingestion, absorption and / or injection. Of these four exposure routes inhalation of a substance is the most common way for a pollutant to enter the human body.

As most Australian office employees spend more than 80% of their time indoors the quality of indoor air is extremely important to assuring their health and the assessment of the indoor air quality within both workshop and office a workplaces should form part of any business hazards assessment program.

A large range of chemical, biological and physical factors can affect the air quality of the indoor environment and as such a range of testing is required to quantify hazards including:
• Physical parameters – temperature, relative humidity, air movement

• Chemical parameters – carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde, total volatile organic compounds and radon.

• Particulate parameters – respirable dust (PM10), ultra-fine dust (PM2.5), synthetic mineral fibre, asbestos fibre

• Biological parameters – mould fungi, bacteria

 

Indoor air quality auditing of a building includes:

• Completion of systematic walk through inspection

• Completion of IAQ monitoring and sample collection

• Collection of water samples from cooling tower systems analysed for microbial contamination (if applicable).

• Inspection of the air-conditioning systems for the presence of contaminant accumulation (dust, asbestos, synthetic mineral fibre and biological hazards)