The First Facility Management Blog

Olympic athletes were prepared to don respirators and China was forced to seed clouds, idle factories and ban vehicles to temporarily lift a pollution fog that enveloped Beijing as recently as last month.

Very interesting (albeit ironic) for USGBC to award their “gold medal” for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to a country recognized as one of the planet’s top polluters.  

Thus proving that the politics of “green” have circled the globe and that lucrative consulting proposals can be generated in multiple languages and paid in a variety of currencies…

Poor Richard

==========================

Beijing Air Improves, Olympic Village Earns LEED Gold

BEIJING, China, August 13, 2008 - Beijing’s air quality has improved, with the sky clearly visible today after rains on Sunday and Monday reduced the air pollution, heat and mugginess that made Olympic athletes, visitors and residents uncomfortable for days. 

Weather officials measured an Air Pollution Index of 32 on Tuesday, far below the benchmark API 100 set by the Chinese authorities. An Air Pollution Index of 50 and below is considered excellent by the World Health Organization.

To read the rest of this article, courtesy of Environment News Service, click this link.

Proper air quality is essential for general health and well-being in indoor spaces. Recognizing this, most people will take steps to address air quality in their homes and workplaces, but what about when on board an airplane when passengers have no control in a very high-density environment?

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) addresses air cabin air quality in its new Standard 161-2007, Air Quality Within Commercial Aircraft. The standard, which covers issues such as temperature, cabin pressure, air contaminants, and ventilation rates, can be voluntarily adopted by individual airlines or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), or advocated for by airline passenger and employee groups.

“Compliance with this standard will go a long ways toward ensuring good air quality for passengers and crews,” says Byron Jones, chair of the committee that wrote the standard. “Aircraft passengers and crew make up a wide cross section of the general population, ranging from the very young to the very old, from the healthy to infirm. And unlike many other indoor environments, occupants do not have the ability to remove themselves from the environment, which is at a lower pressure and relative humidity than that found in many other environments. Standard 161 will help create a healthier, more enjoyable ride for the great variety of passengers on board.”

The standard also addresses chemical, physical, and biological contaminants that could affect air quality as well. Methods of testing are provided for ensuring compliance with the standard’s requirements.

Standard 161 applies to commercial passenger air-carrier aircraft carrying 20 or more passengers. It is intended to apply to all phases of flight operations and to ground operations when the aircraft is occupied by passengers or crew members.