California Interagency Working Group on Indoor Air Quality
Meeting Notes
March 13, 2002
Cal EPA Headquarters
1001 I Street, Sacramento
American Lung Association of California
California Air Resources Board / IAQ &
Personal Exposure Assessment
Program
California Department of Education / School Facility and Planning Division
California Department of Health Service / Environmental Health Investigations Branch
California Department of Health Service / Indoor Air Quality Section
California Department of Health Service / Occupational Health Branch
California Department of Health Service / Tobacco Control Section
California Department of Industrial Relations (Cal/OSHA)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / Indoor Environments Program
Los Angeles Unified School District
Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment / Indoor Air Risk Assessment Group
Stanford University / Department of Statistics
U.S. EPA Region IX / Indoor Environment Team
Indoor Environmental Quality of Schools
Building Design and Operations
IAQ Legislation Introduced. California
legislation on indoor air quality was introduced on February 21, 2002, by
Assemblyman Fred Keeley. The two bills
are:
§
AB 2223, which would establish standards for new and remodeled schools to
minimize the potential health effects from indoor exposure to air pollutants;
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_2223&sess=CUR&house=B.
§ AB 2332, which would establish an indoor air pollution prevention program, including education, community outreach, and emission standards;
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=ab_2332&sess=CUR&house=B.
Report on School IAQ Policy Released. In January 2002, the Environmental Law Institute prepared an excellent analysis of state policies on IAQ in schools entitled, Healthier Schools: A Review of State Policies For Improving Indoor Air Quality. The report can be found on the ELI web site at: http://www.eli.org/store/rr02healthierschools.html .
State Blueprint for Sustainable State Facilities. In December 2001, the California Sustainable Building Task Force released their report, Building Better Buildings: A Blueprint for Sustainable State Facilities (Blueprint), containing recommendations for implementation of the Governor's Executive Order D-16-00. More information on the report and Task Force is included in the Building Design and Operations committee report.
Upcoming Conferences:
§
The combined 7th World Congress on
Environmental Health and 51st Annual Educational Symposium of
the California Environmental Health Association will be held May 20-24, 2002,
in San Diego. For conference
information, see http://www.IFEH2002.org.
§
American
Industrial Hygiene Conference & Exposition will
take place June 1-6, 2002, in San Diego.
The joint meeting of AIHA and ACGIH (American Conference of Governmental
Industrial Hygienist) will include exposition and training, including a
Chemical-Biological Terrorism Learning Track.
Conference info is available at http://www.aiha.org/conf.html.
§
The Ninth
International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate (Indoor Air 2002)
takes place June 30 to July 5, 2002, in Monterey, California. Started in 1978, Indoor Air 'XX is a
triennial international indoor air conference series, which brings brought together
people representing a wide range of disciplines, all working to understand and
solve problems and identify opportunities associated with indoor environmental
quality and climate. It is the largest
multidisciplinary international conference series in the field of indoor air
sciences. The 2002 event is expected to
be the largest in its 24-year history, with up to 1500 participants. The conference web site is http://www.indoorair2002.org/.
§
The ISEA/ISEE
2002 Conference will take place August 11-15, 2002, in Vancouver, British
Columbia. This will be a combined
annual meeting for the two sponsoring organizations: 11th
International Society of Exposure Analysis (http://iseaweb.org/) and 14th
International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (http://www.iseepi.org/). The conference web site is http://www.iseepi.org/index1.htm.
March 2002
Airborne Toxics Control Measure (ACTM) to Reduce Formaldehyde Emissions From Composite Wood Products
By
Jim Aguila (jaguila@arb.ca.gov),
Manager, Substance Evaluation Section, Air
Quality Measures Branch, Stationary Source Division, Air Resources Board
Presentation notes can be found on-line at:
http://www.cal-iaq.org/CIWG/ACTM_Aguila_2002-03.pdf
and information on the program is posted at http://arbis.arb.ca.gov/toxics/compwood/compwood.htm.
-- Bonnie Holmes-Gen (bhgen@alac.org)
Programs. About 2/3 of local lung associations in California are involved in the EPA IAQ Tools For Schools Program, and some are receiving grant funding from EPA. The Program has recently been named a "Best Practices" Program of the national American Lung Association, which means that additional training and materials will be available to assist local lung associations in program implementation. Local lung associations are involved in additional indoor air quality efforts such as the American Lung Association of Central California's "Healthy Homes" program. This program is designed to improve the quality of life for agriculture workers and their families through indoor air quality public education.
Legislation. The ALA-CA is sponsoring AB 2332 (Keeley), introduced in February 2002. This legislation would establish authority for the Air Resources Board to regulate indoor air quality and would require the board to set priorities and adopt indoor air pollution prevention and control measures to reduce emissions from products used indoors.
-- Peggy Jenkins (mjenkins@arb.ca.gov)
SB25 Indoor Monitoring Study. Field work is in progress for the SB25 indoor and personal monitoring study. The lead investigator, Dr. Steve Colome from UCLA, will measure PM2.5, PM10, elemental carbon/organic carbon, VOCs, carbon monoxide, and aldehydes at three schools in SB25 communities. Schools were selected in Boyle Heights and Wilmington in the Los Angeles area and Crockett in northern California. Two weeks of sampling have been completed at both Boyle Heights and Wilmington. Sampling is currently in progress at Crockett. At each school, weekly air samples are collected in three classrooms, one outdoor site on the school ground, and one residence.
Personal monitoring is also part of this study. This component will be initiated in the next visit to each school. Selected students will wear a passive VOC badge for 48 hours and complete a health status questionnaire to determine the incidence of asthma and allergy.
Informational meetings for parents have been held at two of the schools; thus far the schools and parents have been supportive of the study. Contact: Dorothy Shimer (dshimer@arb.ca.gov)
Residential Indoor Cooking Exposure Study. The final report on an indoor cooking study conducted for ARB by ARCADIS Geraghty & Miller was released. Results showed very high levels of particles and elevated levels of formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, and some other pollutants emitted during certain common cooking activities. This confirmed that cooking can contribute significantly to pollutant exposures of the occupants, especially those of the cook. ARB has recommended practical ways that people can reduce indoor pollutant exposures during cooking. The report can be ordered from ARB or found on-line:
Press release -- http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/nr122101.htm,
Project overview - http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/bcooking.pdf,
Project report - http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/cooking/cooking.htm.
Contact: Tom Phillips (tphillip@arb.ca.gov).
Outdoor Air Quality Particulate Matter Standard. The Air Quality Advisory Committee (AQAC) met with OEHHA and ARB staff in January to consider their draft proposal for possible revision to the State Ambient Air Quality Standard for Particulate Matter (PM). PM was previously identified as the highest priority standard to be reviewed under SB25, which requires, among other things, that ARB and OEHHA review traditional pollutants for their potential impact on children and other sensitive groups, and recommend changes to the standards, if needed, to assure protection of children and others. The AQAC was generally pleased with the draft document, but believed that a short-term PM2.5 (fine particle) standard is warranted by the existing data and needs to be included in the proposal. Staff are currently revising the draft proposal document and preparing responses to comments received on the draft, including responses to comments regarding the relationship among indoor, outdoor, and personal exposure concentrations of PM. The revised report is scheduled to be released in May, and is expected to be considered by the Air Resources Board for action at their June meeting. Contact: Peggy Jenkins mjenkins@arb.ca.gov. For more information, please visit
http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/aaqs/std-rs/std-rs.htm.
Fresno Asthmatic Children’s Environment Study, or FACES. Investigators at UC Berkeley recently completed pilot efforts for the “home intensive” portion of the pollutant monitoring effort in this ongoing study, and have begun collecting detailed pollutant data at a subset of the homes of the participants. Additionally, ARB has assembled two mobile trailers with a full suite of air monitors and samplers, which will be deployed at schools throughout Fresno for the next 14 months. Contact: Jeff Yanosky jyanosky@arb.ca.gov. For more information see http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/faces/faces.htm.
-- Tony Hesch (thesch@cde.ca.gov) http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/facilities/
EMF Mitigation. The SFPD has made recent progress with the proposed changes to department policy that would allow new school sites adjacent to power lines to perform a EMF mitigation plan and by doing so possibly reduce the required set back distance from power lines. Two large So. California. school districts have proposals submitted and they are being evaluated at this time.
High Performance Schools. The SFPD continues to provide input to the CHPS group for energy efficient classrooms and will continue to lobby for incorporation of best IAQ standards as part of the energy efficiency standards.
Chemical Terrorism Preparedness. EHIB personnel are currently involved in preparing materials for multiple focus areas of this grant including preparedness planning and readiness assessment, surveillance and epidemiology capacity, Health Alert Network/communications and information technology, risk communication and health information dissemination and health professional education/training. In addition, staff from DHS’’ EHIB and Communicable Disease Control Division are responding to the most recent request for grant applications by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This grant will provide supplemental funds for public health preparedness and response to biological, chemical and other forms of terrorism. (Contact: Debra Gilliss, dgilliss@dhs.ca.gov).
Asthma Resources. Along with DHS’ Chronic Disease Branch, EHIB staff have been developing an asthma resource list that will provide information on the types of services or information available from state and local government agencies as well as community based organizations in California that serve clients with asthma. This list can be seen on the EHIB web site by going to the Topics page and selecting the bullet titled, Asthma Services by County. This list will provide the basis for developing a statewide asthma partnership and offering these partners a number of web-based services. (Contact: George Saunders, gsaunder@dhs.ca.gov).
Presentations. Sandy McNeel discussed health effects of fungi and other indoor allergens at the U.S. EPA-sponsored conference, Indoor Air Quality: Asthma and Allergens, in Fullerton, CA, January 22 & 23, 2002.
-- Jed Waldman (JWaldman@dhs.ca.gov) http://www.cal‑iaq.org
BASE Study. We have began analysis of wet and dry bulk samples in the 100 building data set. An abstract entitled, “Exposure to Bioaerosols in 100 Large U.S. Office Buildings” was submitted for the ISEA/ISEE joint meeting, August 11–15, 2002.
Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Study. We are requesting a 1-year, no-cost extension from TRDRP so that we can study few more actual smoking rooms. We are planning to investigate 1 or 2 smoking rooms at out-of state locations, likely Nevada. (Contact: Leon Alevantis, Lalevant@dhs.ca.gov).
Portable Classroom Study. A set of abstracts related to the PCS were submitted to be included at the ISEA/ISEE joint meeting, August 11–15, 2002.
Authors include Peggy Jenkins and Tom Phillips (ARB), Jed Waldman and Janet Macher (DHS) and Roy Whitmore, Andy Clayton, Mike Phillips and Gerry Akland (Research Triangle Institute). Also see related note under ARB.
Sierra Radon Surveys. Staff is preparing a report on Radon exposure studies recently concluding by DHS in the California Sierra Foothill region. The report will contain results of the 1999/2000 residential survey and 1999/2000 and 2000/01 elementary school surveys. (Contact: Jed Waldman)
Publications:
· A paper by Leon Alevantis, California Program for Sustainable State Buildings Offers Enhanced IEQ, Superior Energy Saving, and Includes Other Resource Efficiency Measures will be published in the April 2002 issue of the ASHRAE periodical IEQ Strategies.
Committee
Work:
· Leon attended the ASHRAE 62 committee meeting on January 11-13, 2002. Among others items, the responses on Addendum AD were discussed. Leon is planning to have a proposed draft at the next committee meeting in April 2002.
· The DHS-IAQ Program recently became members of the U.S. Green Building Council. This group is the “nation's foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work.” See http://www.usgbc.org/.
Presentations:
Papers
Submitted to Indoor Air 2002:
-- Jim Cone (Jcone@dhs.ca.gov), and Liz
Katz (Ekatz@dhs.ca.gov)
Playground Surfacing
Product Sickens Worker. A contractor employee was hospitalized with
a severe respiratory illness after he applied a polyurethane resilient coating
product to a playground. The product's
active ingredient is MDI (methylene bisphenyl isocyanate) in a pre-polymerized
form which has traditionally been considered safe. The monomeric forms of isocyanates are extremely hazardous;
isocyanates are the leading cause of occupational asthma. In response to this incident, HESIS is
investigating the under-appreciated toxicity of pre-polymeric forms of
isocyanates.
Pollution Prevention: Collaborative Activities. DTSC's Office of Pollution Prevention and Technology Development is developing a pamphlet for the jewelry industry addressing environmental pollution issues. HESIS helped DTSC integrate worker health and safety and pollution prevention information in the pamphlet to help protect workers and to simplify regulatory compliance for employers in Southern California.