Chapter 14: Indoor Air Quality Program
Purpose
This written Indoor Air Quality Program is instituted by University of Mary Washington to maintain acceptable indoor air quality. The program is accessible to all interested persons, including employees and enforcing agencies. The information here will facilitate implementation for measures necessary to prevent degradation of indoor air quality. This program is based on the proposed Indoor Air Quality Rule that appeared in the Federal Register on April 5, 1994.
Administrative Duties
UMW’s Indoor Air Quality Program Administrator is responsible for establishing and implementing the written program. OEMS has full authority to make necessary decisions to ensure the success of this program. OEMS is also qualified by appropriate training and experience that is commensurate with the complexity of the program to administer or oversee our program and conduct the required evaluations of program effectiveness. Copies of the written Indoor Air Quality Program may be obtained from OEMS at Hamlet House.
If after reading this program you find that improvements can be made, please contact OEMS. We encourage all suggestions because we are committed to the success of our written Indoor Air Quality Program. We strive for a comprehensive, integrated prevention system that obtains clear understanding, safe behavior, and involvement in the program from every level of the University.
Building Description
General building descriptions are essential information and necessary for a basic understanding of the building systems. It allows us to set the foundation for the operations and maintenance information found later in this written program. The following list gives our building information:
- Most Buildings and facilities at UMW have self-contained AC systems with steam heat.
- There are only a few buildings at UMW with ACM. All ACM remaining is either non-friable or encapsulated.
- There are some offices, residential rooms, and classrooms located below ground level.
- Several buildings and facilities are over 25 years old.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
UMW OEMS is responsible for ensuring that the following provisions are met.
All Personal Protective Equipment used at UMW by employees performing work on building systems will be provided without cost to employees. PPE will be chosen based on anticipated hazards and provided to employees.
All supervisors shall ensure that appropriate PPE in the appropriate sizes is readily accessible at the workplace or is issued without cost to employees. All PPE will be cleaned, laundered, and disposed of by UMW at no cost to employees. To assure the continued reliability of PPE, it must be inspected on a regular basis. The frequency of inspection is related to the frequency of use. PPE that fails an inspection or is otherwise found to be defective is removed from service, and is discarded, repaired, or adjusted.
Operating Procedures
Daily operating and management of facility building systems can directly affect indoor air quality.
Operating performance criteria for building systems summarize and translate design assumptions and intent. In this way, building occupants, whose expectations regarding their environment may exceed what is deliverable by the building systems, may understand what is, in fact, deliverable.
Maintenance Procedures
There appears to be consensus among HVAC Trade Groups and Industry Councils that the most successful maintenance programs, gauged in terms of system performance and life-cycle economics, are proactive rather than reactive. Consequently, we promote preventive maintenance for our building system components that affect indoor air quality.
Inspections
Trained employees, under the direction of Facilities Services, visually inspects our building systems. These inspections focus on those building system components whose failure, degradation, or misuse would adversely impact indoor air quality.
Operator Training
Under no circumstances may an employee operate or maintain a building system until they have successfully become aware of the University’s building systems. This includes all new employees, regardless of claimed previous experience.
OEMS will identify each set of new employees and plan with department management to schedule training. The Administrator will also identify those existing employees who need retraining. Training is done in-house.
Contractor Employees
There are times when we may have outside contractors. For these situations, we ensure that they have awareness for IAQ as well.
Recordkeeping
UMW encourages indoor air quality feedback, whether it is good or bad. We record all employee complaints of building-related illnesses. The University believes these records are necessary to expedite review and evaluation of the system and to support implementation and operation of an adequate indoor air quality program.
All records are maintained by OEMS at Hamlet House for three years; however, maintenance records may be disposed of in less than three years if they are rendered obsolete by establishment and replacement of more recent records or rendered irrelevant due to HVAC system replacement or redesign.
Program Evaluation
It is inherent that problems may occasionally arise in this Indoor Air Quality Program. Although we may not be able to eliminate all problems, we try to eliminate as many problems as possible to improve employee protection. By having OEMS thoroughly evaluate and, as necessary, revise our Indoor Air Quality Program, we can eliminate problems effectively.