Presenter Bio: Carl Grimes
Carl Grimes, HHS CIEC has been a consultant for over thirty years working primarily with building occupants who report feeling better when they leave the building, only for the symptoms and complaints to recur upon re-entry. He started with two years of disability in the 1980s because of his own IEQ issues, with another ten years before he could work full time. His work with individuals led to developing methodology for creating customized action plans of what to do, in what sequence, what not to do, and how to interpret the results. His book, Starting Points for a Healthy Habitat (1999) led to an invitation to present at the first national conference of the Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA). Subsequent invitations followed for committees developing the first mold remediation standard (S520), modifying water damage restoration standard (S500) and modifying two national duct cleaning standards for addressing mold issues (NADCA, ACCA). Mr Grimes served 13 years on the IAQA Board, including 2 terms as President, followed by 4 years as VP of Practice on the Board of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ). Other professional activities include committees developing medical practice parameters for AAAAI-ACAAI; Policy statements on mold and on building dampness for ASHRAE; and, Handbook revisions involving "health." Mr Grimes is the Vice Chair of TC1.12 and the Chair of SGPC10, Interactions Affecting the Achievement of Acceptable Indoor Environments. These activities have developed relationships with cognizant experts in multiple facets of the indoor environment and its occupants. Carl has also co-authored or contributed to a half dozen peer reviewed and published papers. His 30 years of multi-faceted experience on the individual, public, and the industry levels have led to insights from within multiple contexts and the often complex inter-relationships influencing research, research practice, and field practice.
Presentation Description:
There have been many attempts to define, describe, and assess homes for various reasons. One of the most commonly stated purposes is for "health." But, one of the least common procedures actually involves health. In other words, the actions are in name only. For the understandable reason that "health" has no official definition and attempts at operational descriptions are either insufficient or too complex. However, there have been several advancements which have continued from BP, Before Pandemic. This session will identify four of them, identify their characteristics, and propose a way forward. Pawel Wargocki has developed TAIL, a new scheme for rating indoor environmental quality in offices and hotels undergoing deep energy renovation (EU ALDREN project), which includes interactions between Temperature, Acoustic, Indoor Air, and Luminous. ASHRAE Guideline 10-2022, includes an interim definition of health plus a comprehensive set, as the title suggests, of Interactions Affecting the Achievement of Acceptable Indoor Environments. Dr Claudia Miller's group at the University of Texas, San Antonio, recently published their paper on House Call interventions, Does improving indoor air quality lessen symptoms associated with chemical intolerance? This paper demonstrates that identification of certain exposures of concern can be communicated to occupants, alterations of those exposure can be executed by those occupants, validated with a measured decrease in exposure levels and reported decrease in symptoms using a peer reviewed and published self-assessment questionnaire. The fourth activity will be a review the IAQA course, Healthy Home Assessment: Principles and Procedures. The conclusion of the presentation will illustrate a method for moving forward to relate these various activities into a comprehensive and operational whole.