Indoor Air Quality: Helping Protect Worker Health in Facilities

Have you ever felt like a building is making you sick? Pathogens can hide in walls, beneath floors, and in other places normally inaccessible. Dangers like mold caused from flooding or structural problems can often go undetected for years and lead to long-term health conditions for your workforce. David Watts, the leader of CTEH’s indoor air quality (IAQ) team, shares some wisdom regarding this valuable service CTEH can provide for your company.

“CTEH’s indoor air quality program is a top-to-bottom evaluation of a building,” said Watts. “We look at everything from building systems whether they be mechanical, plumbing, electrical, as well as the occupancy load – the people that stay in the building and work in the building.”

Watts said the ultimate goal of an indoor air quality service is to identify the problems that exist within a building and identify any problems the building may be experiencing as a result of meteorological conditions or complaints from occupants.

He said our services “are unique and different than other companies’ in that we bring a wide variety of experience to the problem. We look at buildings from a holistic perspective. We look at building systems and occupant issues.”

Occupant issues are investigated through a sophisticated interview and questionnaire process, Watts said. Our goal through these investigations is the safe reoccupation of the client’s facility. “We’ll also support our clients in the event there is risk, either immediate risk to the occupants in the building, or if there is a construction defect and we need to identify the cause and origin of the defects,” he said.

We routinely investigate public and commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and residences for issues related to water intrusions, sewage releases, compromised building envelopes, and odors. We also investigate flooding claims for utility companies, real estate investment trusts, nonprofits, law firms, railroads, oil and gas, major insurance companies, institutional real estate, hospitality companies, and entertainment/gaming industries, as well as governmental agencies and public/private schools.

If you’d like to hear more about our IAQ services, feel free to contact us at webquestion@cteh.com.