Public Lab Wiki documentation



Indoor Air Quality

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Much of our lives is spent indoors where we live, work, and play. What is in the air we breathe indoors affects our health and quality of life. Some common pollutants that could be present in indoor air include carbon monoxide, radon, mold, asbestos, formaldehyde, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

A number of projects on Public Lab have explored indoor air quality, monitoring and remediation. Check out the materials below, follow the tag indoor-air-quality and add your materials to this topic.

Questions

Title Author Updated Likes Comments
What are health and environmental concerns for sewage smell in a home? @stevie over 2 years ago 3
Is there a correlation between humidity and particulates in the air? @sarasage over 2 years ago 3
HOW do i find testing for air quality in my home - specifically for silica? @MaryBandy about 3 years ago 2
What are indoor air quality concerns related to nail salons? @stevie over 4 years ago 7
Could local mining affect local radon levels? @stevie almost 5 years ago 2
What happens if I inhale too much formaldehyde? @liz about 5 years ago 2
Can Bio-char products absorb CAFO gases like Hydrogen Sulfide or Ammonia? @zengirl2 almost 6 years ago 3
What are ways to make DIY filters to remove particulate pollution from indoor air? @zengirl2 over 6 years ago 11
Methods for or experience measuring workplace hydrogen sulfide gas? @gretchengehrke over 6 years ago 2
What kinds of toxins can be filtered by plants, and how do we know? @warren almost 7 years ago 3
Has anyone used a radon test kit? @stevie about 7 years ago 4
What is the best options for mold testing? @nshapiro over 7 years ago 0
In the plant based air purifier, could airflow go the other way, using an unmodified pump? @warren over 7 years ago 9

Activities


Activities should include a materials list, costs and a step-by-step guide to construction with photos. Learn what makes a good activity here.

Research notes

Title Author Updated Likes Comments
How to Monitor Indoor TVOC with Raspberry PI @Makepcb over 2 years ago 1
Seeking an Air Research Curation Fellow @bhamster almost 3 years ago 0
Can people make their own masks to protect from coronavirus? @joyofsoy about 4 years ago 4
Building Snake Plant Air Remediation kit in Bangalore, India @deeptalaxmibharadwaj over 4 years ago 3
An Insight on Indoor Air Pollutants: Factors, Sources & Pollutants. @silentsairam over 4 years ago 3
Indoor microbiome sampler (vacuum adapter) @nshapiro almost 5 years ago 2
Building a plant-based air purifier kit at Barnraising @warren over 5 years ago 8
#Next steps - Indoor Air Remediation Kit—Paris Working progress & Prototypes 18/09/18 @cguerin over 5 years ago 1
SmART-FORM Badge Lighting Analysis Experiments @haines241 almost 6 years ago 3
Indoor Air Remediation Kit—Paris Prototype and Workshop 2/2/18 @nshapiro about 6 years ago 5
Refining the user interface of a community science app @nshapiro about 6 years ago 5
Formaldehyde Monitoring Open Call on Tuesday, January 16th at 3:00 pm ET @nshapiro about 6 years ago 1
Low cost sensor for air quality monitoring @mprof9 over 6 years ago 4
Smartphone App for Residential Testing of Formaldehyde (SMART-FORM) Interim report @nshapiro over 6 years ago 5

Wikis

All wiki pages relating to air quality:

Title Updated Version Views Likes
Indoor Air Quality over 3 years ago by bhamster 8 445 0
Air Quality Class about 5 years ago by warren 60 637 3
SmART-Form about 6 years ago by gretchengehrke 14 701 4
Formaldehyde over 6 years ago by gretchengehrke 5 620 1
BioBroth Bubbler almost 7 years ago by warren 3 903 0
Massachusetts Indoor Air over 7 years ago by gretchengehrke 1 392 0
Oklahoma Indoor Air over 7 years ago by gretchengehrke 2 228 0
Vermont Indoor Air over 7 years ago by gretchengehrke 7 474 1
Formaldehyde Exposure almost 8 years ago by nshapiro 42 1,828 5
Formaldehyde Test Kit over 8 years ago by mathew 23 4,563 9
Indoor Air Quality Monitoring & Mitigation over 8 years ago by liz 48 2,375 12
WhereWeBreathe over 8 years ago by liz 24 813 6
Roomba Air Quality Monitoring almost 9 years ago by Shannon 2 539 1

Regulations on indoor air quality

Federal regulations

Many of us spend a large portion of our time indoors, and yet indoor air quality remains largely unregulated at the federal level in the US [1]. For office buildings and other workplaces, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets rules on ventilation and some air pollutants [2], but there are no federal regulatory standards on indoor air quality for these spaces. In addition, the air we breathe inside our schools [3], homes, and apartment buildings also lacks federal air quality standards, leaving individual states to set their own rules.

Sources:
1. https://www.epa.gov/regulatory-information-topic/regulatory-information-topic-air#indoorair 2. https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/ 3. https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/are-schools-required-follow-epas-iaq-tools-schools-guidance

Local, tribal, or state regulations

The Environmental Law Institute maintains a searchable database of indoor air quality laws in individual US states here:
https://www.eli.org/buildings/database-state-indoor-air-quality-laws

The US Environmental Protection Agency provides links to state, tribal, and regional indoor air quality programs here:
https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/epa-regional-office-and-state-indoor-air-quality-information