Planning for IEQ Monitoring and Asthma Management

Are there any programs planned to be setup for "air monitoring" stations within schools for the assessment of IEQ/IAQ that facilitate the management of asthma more precisely?

As part of the school walkthrough and facility assessments many school districts are using hand held air measurement and surface measurement instruments such as particle counters, VOC meters, surface and material moisture meters and ATP surface hygeine meters.  No standards exist but school districts use empirical data to compare data results. Wish the EPA would fund some one to collect some of this data and compile the results from these districts 

I would to learn what monitors they are using that they find dependable, reliable, affordable and relatively easy to use.  Do you have any resources for this?

Rich Prill and Dave Blake have several EPA webinars on school walkthroughs where they describe the particle counters, mositure meters, CO and CO2 meters, VOC meters and air flow indciators that they have used in the State of Washington. The Washington State Department of Health and the Northwest Clean Air Agency have used these devices in hundreds of school walkthrough.

The ISSA has published a standard on the use of the ATP meter for surface hygiene measurement. This K-12 Clean Standard was developed over three years by the CIRI organization with a contract to the Indoor Air Program of the Uni of Tulsa

Thank you all for your comments. I understand the preliminary investigation is very important in order to initiate the assessment as mentioned by Larraine. However, without proper identification and evaluation of the causal factors, the problem cannot be addressed properly. I have been working in this field for over twenty years and have tested more than 100,000 environmental samples obtained from likewise scenarios, including various school districts. I have put together a set of parameters which is very helpful in the assessment of the indoor environment. Subsequently that provides a strong background in order to manage the trigger factor responsible for asthma initiation. I have attached the parameters and appreciate feedback from others.

Thanks for the IEQ Parameter  Chart and your efforts to classify the results of your investigations.

More efforts like this are needed to determine appropriate levels of IEQ parameters in schools.

My comments are

move the comfort parameters to the moderate range.

identify the particle size range in your Airborne Particulates parameter,

identify the material that the moisture % applies too since each material will contain different moisture amounts that are safe from biological growth.  Is this % range for wood or some other material,

Add the surface hygiene criteria from ISSA's K-12 Clean Standard for Schools which lists ATP meter measurements that are from to be appropriate for school surfaces

Thanks again for the table