ATTENDANCE AND MEMBER NEWS

During December, we only had three meetings, but attendance was good. Our average attendance was 49 members per meeting; that gave us 65.7% attendance.  Including makeup’s, the following 38 folks had perfect attendance:

Flo Abbattista	Tony Abbattista	Fred Adams
Kristi Bayer	Bill Beare	Bill Buckler
Wes Carson	Matt Carson	Charlie Culpepper
Dominic Digesualdo	Marvin Felux	Russell Gallahan
Tom Gill	Dot Gill	Ron Gorman
Jim Greene	Chris Hansen	Kim Haugen
Tino Hernandez	Rufus Honeycutt	Laurie Johnson
Fred Knorre	Jon Koch	Cecil Latham
Joe Lehane	Mark Meyer	Kent Ochel
Mike Parker	Bill Rinken	Ann Shove
Deloris Schoenfeld	Bruce Shove	Kristin Stevens
Randy Thoma	Bill von Rosenberg	Mike Whelpley
Don Waldecker	Cliff Woisin

Our prayers and sympathy go out to Richard and Sharon Prete for the loss of his mother, who died in Arizona just before Christmas.

We also extend our sympathy and prayers to Kim and Donna Haugen.  Kim’s mother passed away on December 30th.  Mrs. Haugen lived in Minnesota.

Don Bonner is back at home after spending a night in the hospital to correct a rapid heartbeat.  Chris Hanson underwent a number of heart tests and is doing fine.

Laverne and Bill Rinken spent Christmas in Denver with children and grandchildren.  Gerald Boyer spent time in South Texas visiting his mother. Kent Ochel drove back and forth to Kansas two times during the holidays. Dick Reid missed a meeting because he just ‘forgot’; what else is he losing?

Also remember former Club member, David Tate’s, wife Cindy, in your prayers.  Cindy has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

Marvin Felux
VP of Attendance

INDOOR AIR QUALITY

In an effort to share the vast knowledge and expertise of our members, articles of interest and importance will be published.  If you have something you would like to share, please EMail:

mailto:lauriejohson@austin.rr.com (Feedback is welcome regarding this new feature)

For many years efforts to eliminate environmental pollution focused on outdoor air quality. This was precipitated by public complaints about industrial smog, automobile pollution exhausts, toxic waste sites, etc. Ironically, while industrialized countries were spending large sums of money addressing outdoor air pollution problems, the air quality of indoor environments was going virtually unchecked, particularly when most people today spend 80 to 90% of their time indoors.

More recently, the focus of public attention and environmental concern has turned indoors to a hazard growing in public perception, so-called Sick Building Syndrome. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that indoor air can be over 100 times more polluted than outside air, and that about 30% of new and remodeled buildings will have indoor air quality problems in their lifetime.

One of the reasons why indoor air started affecting occupants in the late 1970's and early 1980's is that after the energy crisis in 1973, HVAC systems in new, better sealed, and better insulated buildings started to be designed with minimum ventilation rates of 5 cubic feet per minute (cfm) per person of outdoor air (down from the previous 15 cfm per person standard) to save energy. Much less outside air was supplied by the ventilation systems while at the same time less unplanned infiltration of outside air through the envelope of the building occurred. Windows were not operable. In addition, these modern buildings contained much more plastic and wood laminates, synthetic carpets and wall coverings, chemically treated textiles, and artificial lighting not always appropriate for the tasks performed. Maintenance procedures specified new, stronger cleaning products and pesticides, which incorporate known toxic chemicals. The pollutants emitted by these new synthetic products become trapped in the building due to minimal ventilation.

Since the late 1980’s school buildings have been designed with greater amounts of outside air, typically 15 cfm per person. This has brought on its own unintended consequences as described later in this document.

IAQ Overview in Schools and Preliminary Design Guide

Whatever the causes, the incidence of environmental associated illness is increasing throughout the United States. Those related to buildings are generally classified as one of four main types:

1. Building Related Illness (BRI) This is an illness caused by an agent that can usually be identified by medical diagnosis and laboratory tests. Examples include bacterial infections such as Legionnaires' Disease and Humidifier Fever. In the case of such illnesses the percentage of building occupants affected is highly variable and may even be confined to one individual, and the symptoms persist whether the victims stay in the building or not.

2. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) This may include a wide set of symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, eye, nose and throat mucous membrane irritation, upper respiratory problems, and etc. Usually more than 20% of building occupants are affected over many weeks. Significantly, most of the symptoms disappear when an afflicted person leaves the building.

3. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) This has been described as the failure of humans to adapt to modern synthetic materials. The theory being that the great influx of man-made materials has resulted in a new form of medically unexplained specific sensitivity. Once sensitized an individual generally reacts to lower and lower concentrations of the causative agent or group of agents, as well as to other chemicals and foods. It is with respect to this "spreading" effect that the theory is inconsistent with medically accepted doctrines concerning allergic sensitivity to individual substances.

4. Allergies Caused by Buildings are acquired in much the same way as MCS. In neither case do we know how large the initial exposure dose is that causes the sensitization. We do know that individual response varies tremendously.

Building allergies can be caused by dust, dust mites, microbial spores, animal dander, pollen, etc. Dust is generated from people’s activities. Dust mites are microscopic creatures that live in carpets and thrive on human skin flakes.

Microbial spores are emitted from growths of bacteria, mold and mildew on building materials and in the HVAC system. Animal dander is, for instance, cat and dog dander transported on people's clothes to the school. Inadequate filters or improperly fitted filters can allow pollen from outdoors to enter a building and cause hay fever type allergies. Studies in Sweden indicate that allergies have increased sharply in the past 20 years, and this increase may be related to the increase in sick buildings. It is believed that about 20% of the population in Sweden may be allergic today. Studies in the U.S. suggest a similar ratio.

Although members of the medical profession express doubt that SBS and MCS are distinct clinical entities, it is clear that a significant number of people show symptoms, from whatever cause, that do not conform to the present understanding of allergic diseases. Thus, while chemical exposure has often been attributed as the cause of these symptoms, other factors, such as biological contaminants, noise, lack of daylight, 

Complete article and information available from Kevin Wilson. Kevin is a new member.