It amazes me how some building owners neglect concerns over indoor air quality. They view this as one big headache; they would rather take an aspirin and hope it goes "away". I'm sure this is one of many headaches involved in owning and leasing space in a large office building. Public awareness recent reports of indoor air pollution problems in some office buildings can become more serious than just a headache, and the financial liability and consequences can be overwhelming.

Today's well-educated professionals are very aware of health issues surrounding poor air quality that can affect their productivity and bottom line. The buildings they occupy can be making them sick, while some building owners say that they don't have the time or money to spend on ensuring good indoor air quality (IAQ). This lack of devotion of time and neglect have proven devastating for many building owners across the country. Failing to maintain and manage a commercial buildings’ air quality can fall into a "pay now or pay later" category. For many building owners, pay "later" has been very expensive.

In some cases, multimillion-dollar buildings have been evacuated, while building owners have had to scramble to mitigate design and fix the poor air quality problems, running up the cost for renovation into the millions of dollars.

The worst-case scenario is involving building related illnesses. Throughout the news and media, reports we see and hear of building related illness caused by poorly maintained ventilation systems, causing life-threatening bacterium (unicellular microorganism) that grows in heating and air conditioning systems which easily spreads throughout the buildings. These preventable indoor air quality problems can be corrected before it becomes a bigger headache with expensive and damaging litigation.

Today’s well-educated professionals are very aware of indoor air quality issues and are a big concern to them all. The professional building occupant now is using poor air quality as a bargaining chip in contract negotiations, and others are just simply walking out on leases claiming that the indoor air quality problems invalidate the agreement. One major factor in all of this is a growing public awareness of the indoor air quality and the staff employees that demand something be done about it.

The fact remains that allergic responses to a variety of substances found in indoor air systems include: pollens, dust mites, cockroaches, molds, bacteria, mice droppings, dead animals rotes carcasses, and rat poison chemicals. You wonder why many of these substances found in ventilation systems trigger this allergic reaction, these allergic reactions account for a majority of work absences.

The time to act, clean, and maintain the (HVAC) ventilation system is now, before the complaints start coming in of headaches, sore throats, burning eyes, lungs and skin rashes, fatigue, nausea, and nervous-system disorders. These symptoms have proven to be very lucrative to injury attorneys costing building owners millions of dollars in litigation and awards of claims paid out throughout the country.

Written By: John BetanCourt
KANI Development Inc. Copyrights All Rights Reserved 2008