The eLearning Center for Gatlin Education Services

Overview

In modern life, people spend more and more of their time indoors - home, office, cars, and airplanes. A lot of us even exercise indoors. Unfortunately, we've rarely thought about indoor air quality (IAQ) and its health effects, until recently. Sick Building Syndrome and Building Related Illness are related to poor indoor air quality and other indoor environmental factors. More and more manufacturers are selling air cleaners to home owners to ease asthma and allergy attacks. Are they effective? What are the IAQ problems and what are the possible solutions? This course will provide answers to these questions.

This course is intended to provide a basic introduction for professionals in the IAQ related professions. The course material is based on the booklet "The Inside Story - A Guide to Indoor Air Quality" published by the EPA. The topics include IAQ pollution sources, pollutant types, their health effects, and how to improve air quality. The course also addresses how to respond when you suspect an indoor air quality problem in your home or office and what you should do when building a new home. The booklet is very informative and provides links to other information sources.

The student must take a multiple-choice quiz consisting of seventeen (17) questions at the end of the course to obtain PDH credits.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Attained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

  · Causes of indoor air pollution
  · Identifying indoor air quality problems and measuring pollutant levels
  · Strategies for controlling air quality problems, including source control, ventilation improvements and air cleaners
  · Major indoor air pollutants, including radon, environmental tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, pesticides, and asbestos
  · Source specific controls for each major indoor air pollutant
  · Office indoor air quality problems, including "sick building syndrome"
  · Sources of office air pollution, including ventilation systems

State Board Acceptance

This course can be used by professional engineers to fulfill PDH requirements mandated by state and provincial licensing boards. Decatur Professional Development is an approved provider of continuing education in all states that pre-approve course providers. In all other states that mandate continuing education for engineers, it is the individual engineer's responsibility to determine the suitability of activities for PDH credit. The state boards typically accept online* courses that cover technical, managerial** or ethical content and which are relevant to the practice of engineering. The course must have a clear purpose or objective with a content that will maintain, improve or expand the skills and knowledge of the licensee's field of practice. For questions about your mandatory PDH requirements, visit the website of your state licensing board.

*Online courses are accepted by all state licensing boards that mandate continuing education. Other than New York (which limits online courses to 18 PDH) and Iowa (which limits online courses to 6 PDH), there are no limits placed by other states on the number of hours that can be earned through online continuing education. Consult with your state licensing board if you have any questions about the acceptability of online courses.

**The New York State Board of Engineers does not accept general office management courses, but will accept project management courses that are offered by an approved provider and that are technical in nature and contribute to the engineer's professional practice.