1994-HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE

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Ohl 741 �� taf BARMs� BARNSTABLE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT Z SUPERIOR COURT HOUSE V ` POST OFFICE BOX 427 BARNSTABLE, MASSACHUSETTS 02630 - 0 Phone:(508)362-2511 Ext. 330 �A S E' Public Health Administration 333 Environmental Health 383 Water Quality Analysis 337 TDD 362-5885 February 21, 1995 Mr. Paul Griffin, Chairman Mashpee Building Committee 16 Great Neck Road North Mashpee, MA 02649 Dear Mr. Griffin: Over the last several years our department has been inundated with requests for indoor air quality (IAQ) testing at many Cape schools.These requests,coming from parents of suffering students, teachers'unions and overwhelmed school administrators are becoming a detrimental and extremely costly issue for schools across the Cape. Recently our department co-sponsored a workshop designed to assist school administrators in identifying and solving these ever-increasing problems of poor indoor air quality in schools. The resulting information was frustrating and problematic. We have discovered that solving IAQ problems for existing schools requires expensive testing and even more expensive retro fitting of existing ventilation systems. It appears that the best way to avoid these problems is to prevent them from the beginning, that is before construction. With this letter we are hoping to encourage you group to reassess the designed ventilation for your new school. We had three state and federal industrial hygienists/engineers address this issue at the meeting.The consensus was that most problems appear to be due to insufficient fresh air flow into the buildings because of inadequate state design standards of 10 cubic feet per minute per person. They suggested that 20 cubic feet per minute was the minimum standard to avoid these problems in the future. I am hoping that by writing this letter and supplying you with the names of these officials that the new school can avoid these problems in the future. Enclosed, please find a list of the State and Federal officials who may be of assistance. In addition,they can supply you with literature regarding the inadequacy of the present state standards. in addition, perhaps an administrator who is presently trying to solve existing indoor air quality problems may relate their frustrating and costly experience to your committee. Finally,if our department can be of service, please do not hesitate to call. Sincerely, Marina M. Brock, Senior Specialist cc. Lincoln DeMoura Elias McQuade Sheldon Hamblin