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 [questions:indoor-air-quality] ### Activities [activities:indoor-air-quality] ### Research notes [notes:indoor-air-quality!question:indoor-air-quality] ### Wikis All wiki pages relating to air quality: [wikis:indoor-air-quality] ### 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](https://www.epa.gov/regulatory-information-topic/regulatory-information-topic-air#indoorair)]. For office buildings and other workplaces, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets rules on ventilation and some air pollutants [[2](https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/)], but there are no federal regulatory standards on indoor air quality for these spaces. In addition, the air we breathe inside our schools [[3](https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/are-schools-required-follow-epas-iaq-tools-schools-guidance)], 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](https://www.epa.gov/regulatory-information-topic/regulatory-information-topic-air#indoorair) 2. [https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/ ](https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/indoorairquality/) 3. [https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/are-schools-required-follow-epas-iaq-tools-schools-guidance](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](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 ](https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/epa-regional-office-and-state-indoor-air-quality-information)...
| Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nshapiro | "This is great. The vintage timers are pretty amazing although they add a lot of weight and thus money and are not tamper proof. We could just inclu..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "Great. I've ordered the last two as they have the accuracy we need--will report back by the end of the week. way cheaper than the one i had found. ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| warren | "double sided foam tape, maybe? any formaldehyde concerns in the tape itself? " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| mathew | "we can put double sided tape down on the spot-- they remove the cover and stick the tube down. we already have a ton of 1/8" double sided tape. " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| mathew | "following up on our discussion about trying to calibrate the pump without the flow meter-- could we calibrate the pump at our office, and then have..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| warren | "The tube ought to be taped to the card, I think, so you don't mix it up if you are storing the cards and tubes together. +1 compactness for varyin..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "It looks like most of the cheap hygrometers are of the coil and dial variety which I worry about the robustness of. This one is temp and humidity ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| warren | "Yes, maybe ask Shannon about the budget. The QR code just points at wherewebreathe.org/qr - we can hook that up later to redirect anywhere we like...." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| eustatic | "cool " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "This looks! great! what do you think the QR code would be? We might need there to be a solid color that the tube is placed on top of for consistenc..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| warren | "I think the card could be folded in half, print outward, so the stuff pushes it flat onto the table. Here's a draft, but I do think we could make ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| mathew | "One confounding issue is where the card goes in library shipment. I'm looking at foam-lined reusable boxes we can package everything easily and mi..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| warren | "OK, cool - i agree vertical orientation will probably work better, and OK, going to go for a letter-sized sheet; Nick, could you try to select fina..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| mathew | "we should check the accuracy of the digital thermometer-- sometimes they give 3 sig figs but actually only do 2. if we switched to a vertical orie..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | " There we go! working now. " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "Hey Jeff, The card mock up is 5x8. The alcohol thermo and humidity meter is 9x 2.5 at its thickest point. I have 2 inch diameter coil spring humid..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| warren | "Hey Nick - can you post the dimensions, or just a photo of the thermometers you have with a ruler in the photo? " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| danbeavers | "I did not think about measuring the AC duty cycle. I think the most influential observation was the front door being open 8 to 10 inches. By the ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "@danbeavers do you know the duty cycle of the AC when you did the follow up testing? " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "we would probably want 1 degree accuracy as the visual read out of the tube has to be multiplied by a temperature coefficient on a 1 degree scale. ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | " Here is what the thermo and humidity meter look like next to the card. We could still use an alcohol thermo, this one is just a bit clunky. Also ..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| danbeavers | "Oh, I was making assumptions. I had not seen a pump that was set up to have 2 different attach points. So never mind about my comment! " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| nshapiro | "@danbeavers were you using the whisper pump or another pump? I think the whisper pump can handle one pump and one vacuum if need be " | Read more » | almost 9 years ago | |||
| mathew | "I'm seeing 2-degree accuracy on some of those strips. are they cheaper than an alcohol thermometer? do they photograph better? buy some and lets s..." | Read more » | almost 9 years ago |