IAQ Radio

Mark Ames - AIHA Director, Government Relations - White House Summit on IAQ Takeaways

This week we welcome Mark Ames, AIHA Director, Government Relations to discuss the recent White House Summit on IAQ. Mark was there and we will try to distill the 3.5 hour summit into this show. For the full video of the event go to: https://youtu.be/q1HCG1aXaBg
Since 2003, Mark has led the government relations activities of major national and global nonprofit associations, representing educators, school leaders, engineers, and workplace and community health and safety professionals. Mark currently serves as the head of government relations for AIHA, where he works with legislators, regulators, nonprofits, and leaders at some of the world’s largest companies to identify and solve critical problems facing businesses, workers, and communities throughout the nation.
Mark is the Vice-chair ASAE’s Government Relations and Advocacy Professionals Advisory Council, serves on the Board of Directors for the [Re]build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition, and is the author of The 30-Minute Leader: Your Guide to Influence, Power, and Transformation, available on Amazon.

Nate Adams - Electrification, Heat Pumps, IAQ & The Inflation Reduction Act

This week we welcome back one of our favorite regular guests Nate “The House Whisperer” Adams for a show called electrification, heat pumps, IAQ & The Inflation Reduction Act.
Nate “The House Whisperer” Adams is the author of The Home Comfort Book and has helped numerous clients make their homes healthier, more comfortable, and able to run on clean electricity. He and his partners have adapted that upgrade process into the HVAC 2.0 program which gives HVAC contractors a business model to deliver the same results for their clients while enjoying their work more and being more profitable.
His focus on residential electrification retrofits earned him the moniker “The Father of Electrify Everything” from Panama Bartolomy, CEO of the Building Decarbonization Coalition. He splits his time between living on the Cuyahoga River in Hiram Ohio and in a former West Virginia coal mining village with his wife and young daughter.

R Subramanian, PhD - An International IAQ Perspective & Low Cost Monitor Review

This week we welcome Dr. R. Subramanian for his international perspective on IAQ and to discuss how to evaluate and use low cost sensors. Dr. R Subramanian is a mechanical engineer who does research in atmospheric chemistry and environmental science. His PhD is in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in the IAQ Radio hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Subramanian is currently working in Qatar and joins us from there today.
Dr R Subramanian (“Subu”) is a Senior Scientist at the Environment and Sustainability Center (ESC) of the Qatar Environment & Energy Research Institute (QEERI), where he leads QEERI’s research on sensors for air quality and climate, with applications in outdoor air quality monitoring and forecasting, IAQ management, and measurement of GHG emissions. He is also a research fellow at the Kigali Collaborative Research Centre (Rwanda) and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA, USA).
His recent accomplishments include leading the development of the Real-time Affordable Multi-Pollutant (RAMP) monitor, co-leading the deployment of a 50 RAMP network in and around Pittsburgh, PA, and establishing the Africa qualité de l’air (AfriqAir) monitoring network in many cities across Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, he leads the air quality checks program for the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Erik Malmstrom - Christian Weeks - How to Achieve Sustainable Indoor Air Quality – Part 2

This week we welcome Erik Malmstrom and Christian Weeks to discuss a new document on How to Achieve Sustainable Indoor Air Quality: Part 2 A Roadmap to Simultaneously Improving Indoor Air Quality & Meeting Building Decarbonization and Climate Resiliency Goals. This is a multi layered “Clean First” approach to IAQ which they feel is the key to the low-energy, high-IAQ, climate resilient buildings of the future. 
Erik Malmstrom is CEO of SafeTraces, a Bay Area-based provider of the only indoor air quality verification that actively measures pathogen risk, via patented aerosol tracing technology, in order to optimize safety and sustainability for enterprise real estate clients. Previously, he held senior roles at the White House, Farmers Business Network, and Cargill, is a co-founder of CrossBoundary - a leading frontier market investment advisor, and is a combat veteran and graduate of U.S. Army Ranger and Airborne Schools. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a joint M.B.A. – M.P.P. from Harvard Business and Kennedy Schools.
Christian Weeks is the CEO of enVerid Systems, a leading provider of sustainable indoor air quality (IAQ) solutions. Christian has over a decade of experience in energy efficiency and IAQ. Spurred by the lessons gleaned from the pandemic and the pressing need to reduce carbon emissions and make buildings more resilient, Christian is passionate about helping commercial buildings attain the traditionally conflicting goals of healthy indoor air and energy efficiency.
Christian advocates that buildings take a system-level approach to achieving these goals, what he terms Sustainable IAQ. He recently spearheaded a collaboration with other leading IAQ and energy efficiency organizations to detail the Clean First framework, a four-step process for achieving low energy, high-IAQ, climate resilient buildings. The seven collaborators – 75F, Awair, enVerid, GIGA, Oxygen8, Planled and SafeTraces – published in August 2022 a white paper geared for building owners and operators, architects, energy efficiency consultants, mechanical engineers and contractors called
“How to Achieve Sustainable IAQ: A Roadmap to Simultaneously Improving IAQ, and Meeting Building Decarbonization and Climate Resiliency Goals.”

Marwa Zaatari, PhD & Christian Weeks - How to Achieve Sustainable Indoor Air Quality

This week we welcome Marwa Zaatari, PhD and Christian Weeks to discuss a new document on How to Achieve Sustainable Indoor Air Quality: A Roadmap to Simultaneously Improving Indoor Air Quality & Meeting Building Decarbonization and Climate Resiliency Goals. The document was a collaboration between a group of industry companies that want to promote a layered, system-level "Clean First" approach which they feel is the key to the low-energy, high-IAQ, climate resilient buildings of the future.
 
Dr. Zaatari is an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer, a member of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force Commercial team and will serve on the USGBC board of directors starting January 2021. She is a member of several ASHRAE Committees, voting member of Standard 62.1, Chair for TRG4 Indoor Air Quality Procedure, Vice Chair of MTG.HWBE Health and Wellness in the built environment, Vice Chair of TC2.3 gaseous removal contaminants, Voting Member Standard 145.2 laboratory test method for gas-phase air cleaning systems, IAQ2020 Conference organizer, LEED Committee member, and ex-Chair of LEED IAQP Working Group.
Dr. Marwa Zaatari is Partner at D ZINE Partners. She leads the research of “Air as a Service” around indoor air quality, filtration and air cleaning systems, and IAQ measurements to design and operate buildings for optimal energy and people efficiency.
Dr. Zaatari has extensive experience in identifying and quantifying the sources, fate, and transport of indoor air pollutants, building energy and environmental management, assessing performance-based procedures of HVAC ventilation and air cleaning, and developing and applying models for energy efficiency, indoor air quality, exposure assessment, and economic impacts of indoor air pollution.
Prior to founding D ZINE Partners, Dr. Zaatari was Vice President of Building Solutions at enVerid Systems since 2015, and currently serves on the Board of Advisors. She leads the design of ventilation and filtration/sorption systems in buildings, integration into HVAC systems, and was responsible for managing customer-site installation and ongoing operations and field service.
Dr. Zaatari earned a PhD in Architectural and Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on the built environment and a master’s degree in engineering management from The American University of Beirut, Lebanon with a focus on energy management.
 
Christian Weeks is the CEO of enVerid Systems, a leading provider of sustainable indoor air quality (IAQ) solutions. Christian has over a decade of experience in energy efficiency and IAQ. Spurred by the lessons gleaned from the pandemic and the pressing need to reduce carbon emissions and make buildings more resilient, Christian is passionate about helping commercial buildings attain the traditionally conflicting goals of healthy indoor air and energy efficiency.
Christian advocates that buildings take a system-level approach to achieving these goals, what he terms Sustainable IAQ. He recently spearheaded a collaboration with other leading IAQ and energy efficiency organizations to detail the Clean First framework, a four-step process for achieving low energy, high-IAQ, climate resilient buildings. The seven collaborators – 75F, Awair, enVerid, GIGA, Oxygen8, Planled and SafeTraces – published in August 2022 a white paper geared for building owners and operators, architects, energy efficiency consultants, mechanical engineers and contractors called
“How to Achieve Sustainable IAQ: A Roadmap to Simultaneously Improving IAQ, and Meeting Building Decarbonization and Climate Resiliency Goals.”

Ruth Ann Norton - Green and Healthy Homes Initiative - What Success Looks Like

This week we welcome Ruth Ann Norton President & CEO of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative for a discussion on healthy homes, the new funding in the Inflation Reduction Act and what a successful organization looks like.
Ruth Ann Norton, President & CEO of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, joined the organization in 1993 and has led its development into one of the nation’s most effective and foremost authorities on healthy housing and its impact on the social determinants of health and racial equity. An expert on lead poisoning prevention, healthy homes and the intersection of climate, energy and health, Ruth Ann directs GHHI’s national strategy, policy framework and services to integrate climate, healthcare and healthy housing as a platform for improved health, economic, educational and social outcomes for low-income communities.
She broadened the organization’s mission by designing the GHHI comprehensive model in 2009 in partnership with HUD and CDC that is built on a framework of cross-sector collaboration. GHHI works in over 75 partner jurisdictions to implement its model that effectively integrates resources to comprehensively deliver lead hazard reduction, healthy homes, energy efficiency and housing rehabilitation interventions. She has been at the forefront in building the business case for healthcare investments in housing to address the social determinants of health and racial equity.
Ms. Norton serves as a member of: the EPA Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, the National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health, the National Council of State Housing Agencies’ National Advisory Group, the Ohio Asthma Council, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center For Population Health Information Technology Advisory Board. She is Chair of the Maryland Lead Poisoning Prevention Commission and is also a federally appointed Liaison Member to the CDC’s Lead Exposure and Prevention Advisory Committee.
 

Tom Peter, MS, CIH & Trent Darden - Joining Forces

Good Day and welcome to IAQ Radio+ episode 672. This week we welcome Tom Peter and Trent Darden for a show we are calling Joining Forces. Trent and Tom are part of the management team at First Onsite. Each has unique skills and experience that our audience will benefit from hearing about.
Trent Darden is SVP of Operations, US East at First Onsite Property Restoration. He was formerly the COO and spent 20 years working at Rolyn Companies of Rockville, MD. Trent started with Rolyn in 2000 as a Project Manager, where he worked exclusively on large loss insurance claims, handling all related estimating and general project management. In 2007, he was named the Vice President of Rolyn’s Estimating and Consulting Department. As Rolyn’s Chief Operating Officer, Trent worked with all of their offices to ensure delivery of the quality service our clients know and expect. A Virginia native, Mr. Darden has lived in the Tidewater area for over forty years. He began working in construction immediately following high school, and throughout his college career at Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion University where he pursued a degree in business.
Tom Peter, MS, CIH is Senior Vice President – Regulatory Business Practice at First Onsite Property Restoration. He was formerly the CEO of Insurance Restoration Specialists of East Brunswick, NJ. Tom has supervised just about every type of hazardous waste, indoor environmental quality, mold remediation, water damage restoration project there is and all while in the shoes of a Certified Industrial Hygienist. His vast experience in the field and education make him the go-to guy in the restoration world for everyday and emerging issues in the restoration industry. Tom is also a CIH working as a contractor, something unique in the disaster restoration industry. He sees himself as someone with a scientific and technical background but with realistic and practical solutions.

Bill Bahnfleth, PhD, PE - Dustin Poppendieck, PhD - Alison Savage, MPH - Why Indoor Chemistry Matters! Part 2 Management of Chemicals in Indoor Environments

This week we welcome Penn State Prof. Dr. Bill Bahnfleth, Dr. Dustin Poppendieck from NIST and Alison Savage from EPA’s indoor environments division for part 2 of our series on the NASEM document Why Indoor Chemistry Matters! This week we focus on the Management of Chemicals in Indoor Environments.
 
William Bahnfleth is a professor of architectural engineering at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in University Park, PA, where he has been employed since 1994. Previously, he was a Senior Consultant for ZBA, Inc. in Cincinnati, OH and a Principal Investigator at the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, IL. He holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, where he also earned a bachelor of music degree in instrumental performance. His is a registered professional engineer. Dr. Bahnfeth is the author or co-author of more than 170 technical papers and articles and 14 books and book chapters. He consults on the design of chilled water thermal energy storage systems and has been involved in more than 20 projects world-wide. Dr. Bahnfleth is a fellow of ASHRAE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ). He has served ASHRAE in a variety of capacities, including Student Branch Advisor, Chapter Governor, Technical Committee and Standing Committee Chair, and as Director-at-Large, Vice President, Treasurer, and 2013-14 Society President. His honors include a 1st place ASHRAE Technology Award, Transactions Paper Award, Distinguished Service and Exceptional Service Awards, The Louise and Bill Holladay Distinguished Fellow Award, the E.K. Campbell Award of Merit and the F. Paul Anderson Award. He is also a recipient of the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society’s World-Class Engineering Faculty Award.
 
Dustin Poppendieck is a environmental engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002. He is a fellow of the International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ). Dustin has been investigating indoor air chemistry since 2002. Most of his efforts have involved characterizing primary emission sources and heterogenous reactions at material surfaces. He has investigated emissions from kerosene can lamps used by nearly a billion people throughout the developing world, spray polyurethane foam, non-smoldering cigarette butts and indoor air cleaning devices. In addition, Dustin has studied the disinfection of biologically contaminated building materials (i.e., anthrax) using high concentrations of ozone, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen peroxide and methyl bromide. 
 
Alison Savage, M.P.H., is a Biologist in the Indoor Environments Division (IED) in the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA) at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is the current team leader of the Scientific Analysis Team. Since joining IED in 2018, she has worked on a wide variety of indoor air quality (IAQ) issues including reducing exposure to wildfire smoke in indoor environments, air cleaning and filtration, indoor chemistry , indoor exposure to particulate matter, and low-cost air sensors for IAQ, as well as IAQ issues related to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery for wildfires and floods. Ms. Savage manages the EPA task order that supported the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Emerging Science on Indoor Chemistry consensus study. She also manages the task order supporting the ongoing NASEM consensus study on the Health Risks of Indoor Exposures to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation Solutions. Prior to joining EPA, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru. She holds an M.P.H. in Global Environmental Health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Michigan.
 
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Charles J. Weschler, PhD - Ozone, Hydroxyl Radicals and Indoor Environments; What Inspection and Remediation Pros Should Know

 
This week we welcome Dr. Charles Weschler for a show about a topic of great interest to IEQ and restoration professionals. Restoration contractors are inundated with claims about equipment to help on projects when fires, wildfires and other odor events affect indoor environments. What should practitioners know about ozone, hydroxyls, TI02 and other technologies when investigating or remediating indoor environments? We talk to a world renowned professor about this issue.
 
Charles J. Weschler -After completing his Ph.D. in Chemistry at University of Chicago (1974), Dr. Weschler did postdoctoral studies with Fred Basolo at Northwestern University. In 1975 he joined Bell Laboratories (Physical Chemistry Division) and was made a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1986. He worked at Bell Labs and its successor institutions for twenty-five years. In 2001 he accepted positions at the Environmental & Occupational Health Science Institute, Rutgers University, and the International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, Technical University of Denmark, and in 2010 joined the Building Science department at Tsinghua University as an ongoing Visiting Professor. He continues in those positions. His research interests include chemicals in indoor environments, their sources, their chemistry, and their interactions with building occupants. From 1999-2005 Weschler served on the US EPA’s Science Advisory Board. He has also served on four committees for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. From 2012 to the present, he has been an advisor to the Sloan Foundation’s program on Chemistry in Indoor Environments. He was elected to the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences in 1999 and received the Pettenkofer Award, its highest honor, in 2014. Weschler has also received the 2017 Haagen-Smit Prize from Atmospheric Environment; been made “Distinguished Visiting Professor” at Tsinghua University (2018); awarded “Doctor Technices Honoris Causa” from the Technical University of Denmark (2018); and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2020). His h-index is 69 (Web of Science) and 79 (Google Scholar). http://eohsi.rutgers.edu/eohsi-directory/name/charles-weschler/
 
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Dave Dorman, DVM, PhD - Rima Habre, ScD - Megan Harries, PhD - NASEM - Why Indoor Chemistry Matters; What the Findings Mean for Practitioners

This week we welcome Dr. Dave Dorman, Dr. Rima Habre, and Dr. Megan Harries for Part 1 of our 2 part show on the National Academy of Sciences Report called “Why Indoor Chemistry Matters”. We will focus on what the findings mean for practitioners!
 
David C. Dorman, DVM, PhD is a professor of toxicology in the Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences at North Carolina State University. Dr. Dorman’s research interests include neurotoxicology, nasal toxicology, pharmacokinetics, and cognition and olfaction in animals. Dr. Dorman is an elected fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Dr. Dorman is a diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology and the American Board of Toxicology. He has chaired or served on several National Research Council committees and is a National Associate of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He completed a combined PhD and veterinary toxicology residency program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University.
 
Rima Habre, ScD is an associate professor of environmental health and spatial sciences at the University of Southern California (USC). She leads the Exposure Sciences Research Program in the USC National Institute of Environmental Health P30 Center. Her expertise lies in environmental health, air pollution, and exposure sciences. Her research aims to understand the effects of complex air pollution mixtures in the indoor and outdoor environment on the health of vulnerable populations across the life course. Dr. Habre’s expertise spans measurement, spatiotemporal and geographic information system–based modeling, and mobile health approaches to assessing personal exposures and health risk. She co-chairs the Geospatial Working Group in the nationwide National Institute of Health’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes program. Dr. Habre received her ScD in environmental health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
 
Megan E. Harries, PhD is a program officer with the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She is the director of the Committee on Emerging Science on Indoor Chemistry, which authored the recently released report on Why Indoor Chemistry Matters. Trained as an analytical chemist, Dr. Harries received a BA from Fordham University and a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining the National Academies, she was the recipient of a National Research Council Research Associateship, which she spent at the National Institute of Standards and Technology developing methods for more sensitive and repeatable chemical characterization of trace forensic evidence.
 
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