Public inquiries about indoor air quality in California.

Abstract

To identify the indoor air quality issues about which Californians most often sought advice from a health department or a public information agency and to evaluate how well these agencies met the public's needs, members of the California Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Indoor Air Quality kept records of inquiries they received over a 30-month period from mid-1985 through 1987. Members of the IWG answered calls from residents of a least 49 of California's 58 counties. IWG members received more public inquiries about residences than about offices, educational institutions, commercial buildings, or medical facilities. However, each call about a residence probably represented fewer people at risk of exposure to a real or a potential problem than did calls about other types of buildings. Homeowners themselves asked the majority of the questions about residences, whereas a large number of the inquiries about office buildings were made, not by affected office workers, but by building managers, contractors, consultants, or company health and safety officers. The leading topics of concern in the residences were asbestos, chemical and biological contamination, and radon. In offices, chemical contamination, the ventilation system, biological contamination, asbestos, and tobacco smoke were the most frequently mentioned sources of problems. Callers often reported experiencing headaches, allergy symptoms, nose or throat irritation, and respiratory tract problems in connection with their complaints. IWG members directed a third of the calls elsewhere, of which half were referred to consultants or testing laboratories. The IWG's experience in the State of California could help other health departments prepare to face the public's increasing concern about indoor air pollution.

Reflections on the state of research: indoor environmental quality

“…There is scant information that has been collected recently, in a scientific manner, about the publicÕs concerns regarding indoor air quality. More than 25 years ago, an interagency working group (IWG) on indoor air quality was formed in California (Macher and Hayward, 1991). The IWG kept records of telephone requests for information or assistance related to indoor air quality problems that fell into nine different topical categories: asbestos; airborne dusts and fibers other than asbestos; tobacco smoke; chemical contamination; radon; ventilation and air cleaning systems; biological contamination; general information on the causes and sources of indoor air pollution; and Ôother.Õ The estimated number of calls annually to the IWG about indoor air quality issues was approximately 1500.…”