Issue link: https://hi.iaq.net/i/655416
6 Energy Savings Plus Health | INDOOR AIR QUALITY GUIDELINES FOR MULTIFAMILY BUILDING UPGRADES This document does not do any of the following: 1. Set new EPA regulatory requirements or in any way modify or supersede existing EPA regulatory requirements. 2. Provide guidance on diagnosing occupant health problems or building-related illness. 3. Address emerging issues that have not been linked to adverse health effects. 4. Make training or training documents unnecessary. 5. Provide detailed implementation guidance on how to achieve each recommendation in all situations. 6. Identify funding availability or which programmatic funding sources should be used. 7. Provide guidance for prioritizing building-specific projects during the upgrade process. Portions of this Guide summarize certain regulatory requirements, but the requirements themselves, not the summaries in this Guide, govern. Important Basic Considerations for Protecting IAQ During Building Upgrades Several energy retrofit and building upgrade activities can cause or aggravate IAQ problems as described in de- tail throughout this publication; however, these import- ant basic considerations must always be kept in mind: • Occupants' and workers' exposure to airborne contaminants generated during and after building upgrade activities should be minimized. Building upgrades can disturb existing contami- nants known to cause health problems. Some of these contaminants have specific regulatory require- ments (e.g., asbestos, lead) that must be followed. • Reducing air leakage across the building enve- lope should not be performed without ensuring that there will be adequate venting of combustion appliances and outdoor air ventilation to dilute and remove pollutants from within the building after the project is completed. Modifications that increase the airtightness of a building's envelope increase the potential for elevated levels of contaminants indoors. Care must always be taken to ensure that these activities do not cause improper venting of combustion applianc- es and increase occupant exposure to combustion by-products, including carbon monoxide; introduce increased indoor exposures to other pollutants; or introduce or exacerbate moisture and mold prob- lems within the building. How This Guide Is Organized This Guide covers 24 priority issues, and each priority issue includes three sections. 1. Assessment Protocols: Measures to identify and evaluate potential IAQ and safety concerns in mul- tifamily residential buildings undergoing upgrade activities. The assessments should be performed in all common areas of the building and in as many dwelling units as possible. 2. Minimum Actions: Critical actions intended to correct deficiencies identified during the assess- ments, incorporate minimum IAQ protections, and ensure that work does not cause or worsen IAQ or safety problems for occupants or workers (i.e., "Do No Harm"). EPA recommends these protections for all building upgrade projects. Some of the Minimum Actions identified overlap with regulatory requirements but not all regulatory requirements are listed; others are recommenda- tions for additional steps to protect and improve IAQ during building upgrades. Applicable regulato- ry requirements must be followed, and the regula- tions, not the summaries in this Guide, establish the applicable requirements. Recommended additional steps are not mandatory from a regula- tory standpoint. 3. Expanded Actions: Additional actions to promote healthy indoor environments that can be taken during many building upgrade projects. EPA rec- ommends considering these improvements when feasible and sufficient resources exist. The Assessment Protocols, Minimum Actions and Expanded Actions are designed to incorporate good IAQ practices into a variety of multifamily residential building upgrade projects. To be effective, the recom- mended assessments and actions should be built into the very earliest stages of project conceptualization and design. Working as a team, building upgrade con- tractors, building owners and property managers can use the guidelines to better understand the interrela- tionships between building upgrades, including energy efficiency upgrades and IAQ goals. They also can use the guidelines to identify opportunities to protect and promote healthy indoor environments during typical building operations, maintenance and energy man- agement tasks. Due to the wide variety in multifamily residential building designs and the magnitude in scopes of building upgrade projects, there can be vari- ability in how this Guide is used. For example, a small project focused only on window upgrades would refer to a small subset of priority issues in the Guide, while a larger, more extensive renovation could refer to the majority of priority issues.