Indoor Environmental Quality

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is a broad term that addresses the complete spectrum of indoor environmental factors: light quality, air quality (including temperature, humidity, odors, and pollutants), and acoustics. Recognizing that the primary goal of school programs is to educate students, it is important to emphasize how good IEQ is essential to these educational goals. There is now considerable empirical research explicitly connecting high performance building characteristics and student productivity.

Children Are More Vulnerable

A key point for the concern over Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) problems in schools is that children are believed to be much more vulnerable than adults to environmental contaminants and injury . Relative to their size, children's breathing rates and metabolic rates are significantly faster than adults. Hence, children will breath in and metabolize greater doses of airborne toxins than adults in the same environment. Because children's bodies are actively growing, they absorb and retain more of these toxins. Their defense mechanisms are less effective to prevent contaminants and infectious organisms from entering their bodies, and their immune systems are less able to respond when agents do enter.

Increased Rates of Asthma

Across the country, student and staff populations have seen sharp increases in both the prevalence and severity of asthma. Rates in urban areas have been especially high. This means an increasing number of students and staff are coming into the classroom with already highly sensitized respiratory systems. Exposures to common molds and damp environments have been associated with childhood respiratory illnesses, such as persistent wheeze, attacks of shortness of breath, and bronchitis. Molds typically cause health problems when large quantities of airborne spores are inhaled.

IEQ Affects Learning

In addition, IEQ has an indirect, yet profound, effect on learning. Inadequate ventilation leads to the buildup of carbon dioxide and other indoor pollutants, which are often associated with discomfort and the inability to concentrate. Exposures to volatile organic compounds (VOC's) and other indoor pollutants can cause a range of acute symptoms at relatively low concentrations. Eye and respiratory irritation are the most common complaint. These indoor contaminants can also cause headaches, mental confusion, behavioral problems, and fatigue—all of which diminish students' ability to concentrate or assimilate information. Among asthmatics, the increased need for medication (often with sedating side effects), exacerbations of asthma attacks, and related absences further undermine education in affected classrooms.

Read more about strategies to control indoor Air Quality

The CHPS Best Practices Manual Design for High Performance Schools covers all of the design issues relevant to ensuring superior indoor air quality.