Indoor Air Quality

Steve Froelicher, PhD, will be presenting on indoor air quality.

Steve will be presenting on:

· Formaldehyde: the molecule, reactivity, basics
· VOCs: other common VOCs in buildings and their hazards
· Construction items, furniture, source control
· Methods for identifying VOCs: Flame Ionisation Detection, Photo Ionisation Detection
· Detection and measurement as it relates to green building rating systems.

Specific learning objectives that will be covered:

1. Understand how formaldehyde is a silent threat to respiratory distress by understanding the basic properties of the formaldehyde molecule
2. Understand the sources of formaldehyde, especially the somewhat hidden sources such as in cabinetry, etc. and how use of quality products and design can help reduce these effects.
3. Understand how formaldehyde is monitored and the current guidelines (or lack of or confusing guidelines) for formaldehyde exposure
4. Understand how formaldehyde can be remediated but possibly never entirely eliminated from living spaces.

Dr. Steve Froelicher is a Senior Scientist at Prism Analytical Technologies. Dr. Froelicher received a B.S. in Chemistry from Northern Kentucky University and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Purdue University. Steve has worked at Prism since 2011 and his interests include understanding and correlating VOC sources, improving and developing new methods for VOC and semi-volatile (SVOC) detection, and educational awareness of VOCs for the air testing community. Dr. Froelicher has also been an Adjunct Chemistry Lecturer at local universities for the past 23 years.

Please join us for a tour of Leopardo prior to the presentations from 5:00pm - 5:30pm. The Leopardo office is in the final stages of pursuing dual certification under the LEED and WELL commercial interiors rating systems. The space was finished in December of 2018. They did a hard hat tour during Chicago Greenbuild 2018 and will be presenting on this project at the Chicago Builds Conference this September.

Agenda
5:00-5:30pm -- Tour of Leopardo
5:30-6:00pm -- Networking
6:00-7:15pm -- Presentations
7:15-8:00pm -- Networking

Monthly meeting are held the 3rd Wednesday of every month and feature education topics focused on Passive Buildings with an opportunity to network with passionate individuals, and experienced practitioners. Look forward to seeing you there.