The First Facility Management Blog

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Tools for Schools (TfS) Program in 1995 to reduce exposures to indoor environmental contaminants in schools through the voluntary adoption of sound IAQ management practices. This program provides IAQ guidance and resources for facility managers and others who work in K-12 public and private schools.

The IAQ TfS Awards Program was initiated to recognize schools and school districts that have demonstrated a strong commitment to improving children’s health by promoting IAQ practices. For those schools and districts just beginning to implement IAQ management plans to those who have mature, sustainable, district-wide IAQ programs, EPA provides a series of national level awards.

Up until this year, the Awards Program featured four types of awards: National Great Start Award; National Leadership Award; National Excellence Award; and National Model of Sustained Excellence Award. Additionally, for 2009 the National IAQ TfS Connector Award has been added to the program.

Since the inception of the IAQ TfS Awards Program, EPA has presented National Excellence awards to nearly 80 schools and school districts in recognition of their dedication to improving IAQ.

Description Of Awards

The IAQ TfS National Great Start Award is for U.S. schools and districts in the initial stages of implementing the IAQ TfS Program. To qualify, schools must establish an IAQ team or designate an IAQ Coordinator. Designed to recognize schools and school districts that are on their way to achieving sustainable IAQ management plans, Great Start Awards are non-competitive. Applications are accepted year round, and awards are presented throughout the year.

The IAQ TfS National Leadership Award is for U.S. schools and districts that have shown significant progress in implementing an IAQ management program. To qualify, schools must at least meet the minimum criteria for the Great Start Award and show progress towards completing IAQ walkthroughs or assessments for each school in the district that has agreed to participate in the program. Applicants must demonstrate how they are taking action to address IAQ issues and have identified and prioritized any IAQ repairs and upgrades. The Leadership Awards are non-competitive. Applications are accepted year round, and awards are presented throughout the year.

The IAQ TfS National Excellence Award is one of EPA’s highest IAQ awards, presented to U.S. school districts with exemplary IAQ programs and that have shown exceptional commitment to good IAQ management. These awards are competitively judged and will be presented to the selected school districts at EPA’s 10th Annual IAQ TfS National Symposium, to be held in Washington, DC on January 14-16, 2010. Deadline: must be postmarked by September 30, 2009

The IAQ TfS National Model of Sustained Excellence Award is presented to U.S. school districts that show ongoing exceptional commitment and achievement in maintaining healthy educational facilities while institutionalizing comprehensive IAQ management practices. Recipients must have been a past National Excellence Award recipieny. Applicants must demonstrate how they have sustained their IAQ practices, established IAQ management goals, and tracked short-term and long-term progress on IAQ management. These awards are competitively judged and will be also presented to the selected school districts at EPA’s 10th Annual IAQ TfS National Symposium in January 2010. Deadline: must be postmarked by September 30, 2009

New for 2009 is the the National IAQ TfS Connector Award, which will be presented to individuals and organizations whose outstanding, innovative actions and initiatives have supported improved school indoor environments, with a special focus on activities that reflect the spirit of the IAQ TfS Connector—the central communication and networking platform of the IAQ TfS Program. These awards are competitively judged and will also be presented to the individuals or organizations at EPA’s 10th Annual IAQ TfS National Symposium in January 2010. Deadline: must be postmarked by September 30, 2009

More information, along with past winner stories, can be found on the Awards Program home page.

Or Start Now..
If you’re still in the early stages of creating a formalized IAQ program in your school, you may want to order (or download) the components of EPA’s IAQ TfS Action Kit.

Since its release in 1995 (just re-released this year), the kit (which is free of charge) instructs schools on how to carry out a practical plan to improve indoor air problems at little cost or no-cost using straightforward activities and in-house staff. The kit provides best practices, industry guidelines, sample policies, and a sample IAQ management plan.

Billions of dollars in potential asbestos-like litigation risks for nanotechnology companies and investors are now hidden due to weak regulations governing disclosures of liabilities, according to a new report from the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN).

Nanotechnologies are now commonly found in sunscreen, cosmetics, food, clothing, sporting goods, and packaging. Yet some of these technologies are showing signs of posing serious hazards to human health and the environment, including the same kind of grave threats resulting from exposure to asbestos, according to the IEHN report.

The IEHN report is available for download.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) are now in the process of examining disclosure requirements and could remedy the eight securities and accounting loopholes identified in the report. IEHN is a partnership of investment managers overseeing more than $25 billion in assets.

Report author Sanford Lewis, counsel to IEHN, said: “In the midst of the current crisis of investor confidence, our report flags a major new argument for demanding honest accounting. Investors cannot afford the repetition of another asbestos-like wiping out of billions of dollars of equity when it comes to new technologies like nanotechnologies that are seeking investment dollars now. This report is a call to action for regulators to bolster the integrity of securities disclosure and financial reporting, and to restore credibility to the investing marketplace. Based on the identified loopholes in securities and accounting rules, the credibility of corporate reports as a means of assessing the financial value of companies is in doubt. The FASB and SEC must act quickly and decisively to close the eight loopholes identified in the report.”

Commenting on the report, David Rejeski, director, project on emerging nanotechnologies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and former federal agency representative, White House Council on Environmental Quality, said: “While billions of dollars have been devoted to developing nanomaterials and introducing them into commerce, much less effort has been devoted to assessing their toxicity and developing governance systems for them. IEHN’s new report identifies major holes in existing rules for addressing financial liabilities and offers constructive suggestions for filling them. Ultimately, a regulatory system that does not address the liabilities of existing nanotechnologies puts consumers, investors, shareholders, and the environment at risk and compromises the future promise of the technology.”

The new IEHN report concludes: “As a result of weak regulations, companies do not assess, quantify or disclose potential and pending liabilities on a timely basis …. [S]hareholders and analysts are unable to use existing disclosures for a realistic evaluation of many companies. Today, as potentially ultrahazardous nanotechnologies enter the market, the same regulatory weaknesses that allowed asbestos manufacturers to conceal information from investors are being abused once again to conceal information regarding the newer technologies. Regulators must act now to prevent a repeat of past financial disasters, and to ensure that investors’ expectations of forthright accounting are met. Although our report focuses on product-related liabilities, many of our findings are equally applicable to the broader array of contingent liabilities that appear in disclosure reports and financial statements.”

Background On Nanotech Risks

This is a rapidly growing force in the marketplace, with worldwide sales of nanotechnology-based products doubling annually. According to Lux research, the medical, pharmaceutical, materials, coatings, catalysts, food and food processing industries, as well as green energy organizations, will spend more than $1 trillion developing products based on nanotechnology by 2015. Current annual worldwide investment in nanotechnology research is over $9.6 billion, and more than two million people work in the development, production, or use of nanomaterials.

Current annual worldwide investment in nanotechnology research is over $9.6 billion.

This widespread deployment of nanotechnologies in the marketplace is taking place despite evidence that the different size and surface area of nanoparticles may result in dramatically enhanced toxicity and harm to living organisms. Evaluation of the impact on human health and the environment is lagging the rapid introduction of these products to the marketplace, with future liabilities one likely result.

A recent European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) report titled “Expert Forecast on Emerging Chemical Risks” identifies the main groups of substances which could pose new and increasing risks to workers. It puts nanoparticles at the top of the list of substances from which workers need protection.

Carbon nanotubes are one type of nanotechnology. Some forms of these materials have already been found to cause granulomas in the lining, or mesothelia, of the body cavity of laboratory animals. Granulomas are pathological responses known to be precursors of mesothelioma, one of the diseases caused by asbestos. Researchers have concluded that “long, thin carbon nanotubes showed the same effects as long, thin asbestos fibers.” Despite all the growing concern, companies producing carbon nanotubes have failed to disclose to investors whether the nanotubes they are producing are in this potentially harmful form, and if so, any studies that might help quantify the potential liability exposures.

Disclosure Loopholes

The IEHN study identifies eight loopholes in the current system of securities and accounting regulation that currently prevent honest accounting for a firm’s potential liabilities and provides practical solutions:

1. Shortsightedness: Taking the short view and thereby effectively avoiding disclosure or estimation of potential longer term liabilities.

2. Concealed Science: Concealing emerging science that forewarns of potential liabilities in the future.

3. The Known Minimum: Disclosing only the “known minimum” of potential liabilities, even though a more realistic assessment might be so much larger that it would indicate the potential for a total wipe out of
shareholder value.

4. Privileging Secrecy: “Privileging” concealment, by using attorney-client privileges as a shield against generating a public estimate of liability for investors.

5. Inconsistent Estimates: Providing inconsistent liability estimates to insurers and investors, with larger estimates of liabilities typically provided to insurers than to investors.

6. Hidden Assumptions: Using hidden assumptions to minimize estimates of liability.

7. Missing Benchmarks: Refusing to benchmark liabilities against other companies whose published litigation results may demonstrate realistic estimates of liability.

8. Risk-Free Proxies: Refusing to allow shareholders to place on the annual proxy ballot questions requesting disclosure of specific risks of concern to investors.

As the IEHN report notes: “Together, the eight loopholes identified in this report allow companies to avoid estimation and disclosure of contingent liabilities. They reflect a pervasive ‘don’t ask/don’t tell’ approach which is no longer tolerable in a public policy environment where restoring investor confidence is the priority. Current regulatory reform efforts already underway at the SEC and FASB provide opportunities to close these loopholes …”

The report and a related video interview with the author are available online at http://www.iehn.org/.

Not only do floor mats help keep dirt from being tracked into a building, they can also  help to prevent illness causing bacteria from entering facilities on footwear. Dr. Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona, has found that as many as 5,000 bacteria can cling to one square inch of footwear. And, Gerba says, that’s 100 times more than can be found on a similar-sized area of a toilet seat. Among the types of bacteria the professor has identified on footwear are Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Serratiaficaria. These bacteria can can cause intestinal infections and diarrhea, pneumonia, and respiratory tract infections, respectively.

However, taking measures to address these  issues keeps most illnesses at bay. Says Adam Siegel, a facility services and work hygiene product manager at UniFirst, which provides cleanliness products to companies throughout North America, “We live in a bacteria filled world and it’s simply a matter of practicing some basic personal and building hygiene—particularly during the winter cold and flu season when soiling conditions generally tend to worsen.”

For personal hygiene, Siegel says individuals should wash their hands regularly with soap and water. Even better, he says, use a waterless hand sanitizer like Purell®. The comparable solution for building hygiene, Siegel says, is to follow a “two-step, dirt-trapping system.” Step one calls for using scraper mats just outside building entranceways, while step two calls for placing walk offs immediately inside of them. The cross patterned cleat construction of scraper mats allow them to remove significant portions of dirt from the feet of visitors before they enter a building, while the walk offs remove most of the residual soiling. Together, this approach prevents 85% of all outside dirt and bacteria contaminants from entering a facility, according to the International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA).

Other studies, like the state of Minnesota’s “Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality,” underscore the effectiveness of two-step matting systems for preventing particulates from being spread throughout a facility and negatively impacting indoor air quality. The guidelines’ authors, however, recommend that all entranceway mats be professionally maintained on a weekly basis to ensure their total effectiveness. Siegel agrees. “Without regular replacement and laundering, entranceway mats simply become giant rubber stamp pads that allow footwear to disperse bacteria infested grime everywhere anyone walks.”