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INDOOR AIR QUALITY AND FURNITURE PROCUREMENT IN EPA'S NEW RESEARCH TRIANGLE CAMPUS
Citation:
Howard*, E M., S. Roberts*, W. H. Pemberton, AND P. J. Schubert*. INDOOR AIR QUALITY AND FURNITURE PROCUREMENT IN EPA'S NEW RESEARCH TRIANGLE CAMPUS. Presented at Indoor Air Quality Problems and Engineering Solutions Symposium, RTP, NC, 21-23 July 2003.
Description:
The paper discusses various aspects of the EPA's new 1.2 million square foot building in Research Triangle Park that pertain to indoor air, with a particular focus on the process EPA used to select furniture to meet its indoor air guidelines. In keeping with its mission of protecting the environment, EPA developed a building that embodied many environmental considerations, and one important aspect of this is good indoor air quality. Construction specifications for the building included the use of low-emitting and low-toxicity materials, a sequence of finish installation that minimizes sink effects, and local source control. In addition, chamber testing of certain materials and baseline testing of the building's air quality were required before the building could be accepted by EPA. Similarly, EPA wanted to minimize any adverse environmental impacts of the building's furniture. To do this, EPA used a two-pronged approach composed of both an environmental assessment questionnaire and chamber testing. The questionnaire asked about the furniture company's corporate environmental approach, the implementation of environmental policy at the manufacturing facility(ies), and the furniture itself. Chamber testing was required to verify that the proposed furniture would meet a set of emission standards set by EPA for total volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, and total aldehydes.