Air Date: 9-11-2015| Episode: 382
This week on IAQ Radio we welcome Kevin Kennedy, Luke Gard and Eric Shapiro. Listeners know Kevin from his prior interviews with us but this time he has one of his top lieutenants joining him along with a friend and colleague of all of ours Mr. Eric Shapiro…
Full Description:
This week on IAQ Radio we welcome Kevin Kennedy, Luke Gard and Eric Shapiro. Listeners know Kevin from his prior interviews with us but this time he has one of his top lieutenants joining him along with a friend and colleague of all of ours Mr. Eric Shapiro. We are going to discuss how research should be informing practice and what we can do to help. For the past few years Luke and Eric have been running the live research we have been performing at our annual conference for IAQ Training Institute, LLC. We set up very similar hotel rooms for a simulated remediation. We set up the rooms in ways that are common in the IEQ world one was negatively pressurized, one was set up just scrubbing the air with a HEPA filtered AFD and one was set up doing both negative pressure and scrubbing. Our class participants measured various parameters before, during and after the set up of different types of containments. We will discuss the results and we will go into other research done by and being done by Kevin’s group at Childrens Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. LEARN MORE this week on IAQ Radio!
Z-Man’s Blog:
Learning through research
When the word research comes to mind we often think of learned scholarly scientists and brainy technicians in lab coats using sophisticated and expensive equipment to study things beyond our capacity to either understand or pronounce. As practitioners, too often we view research as something done by others; we are most often detached from it.
Often our job is to improve the indoor environmental quality of our clients’ homes, buildings or workplaces. As an IEP or remediator have you ever wondered?
1. Are we making the situation or work site better or worse?
2. Is there a better way or more effective method to perform a task?
3. Which containment methods work best?
4. Should we use negative air containment?
5. Can we quantify how much we improved the situation?
6. Have you ever felt uneasy about a recommended industry practice?
There are many training classes; the majority are taught in classrooms or online. I opine that those which offer hands-on experience are vastly superior. A component of IAQ Training Institute’s Healthy Building Summit (Sept. 28- Oct. 2, 2015) provides the opportunity for students to interact with scientists and experienced practitioners and participate in active ongoing research.
Today’s guests on IAQRadio: Kevin Kennedy , Luke Gard and Eric Shapiro will be leading the research at this year’s event discussed findings from the prior two events. Their study involves a comparison of 3 similarly sized containments in which the method of using an air filtration devices (AFD) was varied. In one scenario one AFD was used in air scrubbing mode, in the second one AFD was used to negatively pressurize the containment and in the 3rd one AFD was used in scrubbing mode and another AFD was used for negative pressure. Comparison criteria included: particle counts, spore trap sampling, water activity measurements of internal and external walls, comfort measurements (temperature and relative humidity). The data indicates that the area in which the AFD was used in scrubbing mode had the lowest particle counts and water activity.
This year the goal is to expand the study to include comparative allergen sampling before and after vacuuming, HEPA vacuuming and hot water extraction carpet cleaning.
Nuggets mined from today’s episode:
- The panel recommended the following resources for keeping up with current research: online scientific journals such as PubMed, AIHA/ASHRAE Journal, conferences (where you can preview new research prior to publications, meet and interact with researchers). HUD, EPA and ListServs
- The certifications you hold and the societies you belong to will come under scrutiny when a project goes legal. (Kevin)
- Practitioners figure out best practices, report and share them with their peers. Researchers then may develop evidence to quantify and validate them. (Kevin)
- Detailed the results of a study conducted in schools which demonstrated the efficacy of HEPA vacuums in improving IEQ, (HEPA vacs did not re-entrain dust). Dust mite allergen rose with increased humidity. Challenges in getting custodians to regularly use the HEPA vacs and confirmed pet allergen were being transported by students. (Luke & Kevin)
- Model for Environmental Assessment and Exposure Reduction.The systematic assessment and characterization of exposures. 3 Components: 1) facilitative factors, 2) contamination sources, 3) reservoirs. Exposure process is simultaneous. (Kevin)
Congratulations to Children’s Mercy Hospital for winning an inaugural HUD Secretary’s award for Healthy Homes.
Today’s music:
American Dad- Doing Research (so much freaking research) montage YouTube.
Z-Man signing off
