Indoor Air Quality Tools

Workforce

Equipping your workforce with the education, skills, and tools they need to address IAQ is critical. This page contains examples of guides, training, and educational materials for different stakeholder groups.

Certification and Training Programs

Healthy Housing Principles Certificate 
BPI’s healthy housing certification program is designed for healthcare workers, policymakers, trade professionals, real estate professionals, and more. The program analyzes cleanliness, dampness, pests, contaminants, thermal comfort, maintenance, ventilation, and safety. [url; BPI]

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Trainings 
CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health offers a quartet of indoor air quality (IAQ) training options available for purchase, including a four-hour “highly interactive” introductory course titled Building Air Quality—Action Plan: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Managers. This course introduces the causes of IAQ problems, provides suggestions on diagnosing and mitigating IAQ problems, and shows how to prevent them from occurring in the first place. [url; CDC, 2014]

Guides Written for Various Stakeholders

Cleaner Air, Cleaner Communities: Six Steps to Develop Environmentally Just State Implementation Plans 
Published by the Environmental Justice Leadership Forum on Climate Change (facilitated by WE ACT for Environmental Justice), this guide outlines steps for developing environmentally just state implementation plans (SIPs). The steps are to (1) assess social and environmental disparities, (2) structure meaningful community engagement, (3) identify community needs, (4) evaluate community impacts and benefits, (5) develop community responsive SIP, and (6) engage the community in implementation. The guide also emphasizes cultural engagement to reduce subconscious bias and includes a checklist to complete when formulating a SIP. [pdf; WE ACT, 2018]

E-Learning

Building Systems to Sustain Home-Based Asthma Services 
In collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NCHH developed this e-learning and technical assistance platform to support the launch and growth of large-scale, evidence-based, sustainable asthma home visiting programs. With guidance on topics such as Medicaid reimbursement opportunities and other financing options, developing a business case, scaling up, referrals and eligibility, staffing and training, supplies and services, community resources, and evaluation and reporting, each of the primary 10 e-learning modules offers a deeper look into some of the topics and strategies to consider while working to design and implement home-based asthma services. Numerous supplemental resources are linked throughout. [url; NCHH]

EPA Federal Interagency Committee on Indoor Air Quality 
This page provides information and background on the Federal Interagency Committee on Indoor Air Quality (CIAQ). Additionally, CIAQ meeting materials and recorded webinars are available on this page for visitors to access and view. Topics covered in past webinars on IAQ are broad; webinars have touched on the effects of wildfires, mold, social determinants of health, and e-cigarettes on IAQ. [url; EPA, 2023]

Indoor Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation Approaches: Proceedings of a Workshop 
To better understand the sources of indoor PM_2.5, the possible health effects of exposure to indoor PM_2.5, and engineering approaches and interventions to reduce those exposure risks, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a virtual workshop, Indoor Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation Approaches, in April 2021 that focused on exposures that occur in residential and school buildings and on existing and practical mitigation technologies and approaches. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop. [url; National Academies]

Asthma Community Network 
This online network provides a wealth of information and resources for community-based asthma programs and organizations that sponsor them—including representatives of health plans and providers, government health and environmental agencies, nonprofits, coalitions, schools and more. Specifically relevant to this module are podcasts and webinars highlighting the specific scope of services some home-based asthma service delivery programs are choosing to provide and learn more about how you can create a program or service that can adapt to the different needs of your client base. [url; ACN]

Forest Economy Series 2: Heating Up—The Outlook for Wood Heat 
This 90-minute webinar from the Northern Forest Center covers the current state of the wood heat sector in northern New England and New York, from domestic wood heat policy and technology to pellet mill production and commercial/institutional wood heat systems. [url; NFC, 2022]

 

Latest page update: March 7, 2023.