Ignoring a problem will not make it go away!

My wife works for a company called Hewitt Associates here in The Woodlands. Hewitt provides outsourcing of company benefits for many of the world’s top companies. They’re known as the best in the US, and maybe the World – for the services they provide. And, they really treat their employees great! Until today that is.

It seems that over the weekend, painters worked on some portion of each floor. I don’t have a clue how much paint they put down. But when people came in this morning, the vapors lingering from drying paint were causing problems. Kaye (my wife) called and asked me how long I thought the odors would continue. She’d been in the building for about 30 minutes and already had a screaming headache. And, she said the odors were everywhere in the building. And this is a building of several hundred people too!

I called back about 90 minutes later and got voice mail, so I assumed all was well. 1 hour later though, she called me from home. It seems that people were calling ‘911’ and nobody was getting any work done. Ambulances were pulling up, and people were leaving the building. Finally, management decided that everyone could leave (the building and property) for ninety minutes.

So Kaye came home and rested. After 90 minutes she returned to work only to find the odors to be just as bad. Now, management is offering anyone not feeling well a sick day. I told her she’d be crazy to not take time away from the building.

I've worked with commercial building managers on IAQ for a decade, so it's hard for me to understand how these managers could be so unaware of the effect paint vapors could have on a Monday morning. And what about the painters? Did they know and conveniently forget to tell someone?

Is it just me, or is there some common sense missing her?

New building designs

Buildings.com has published an article discussing the structure for the new #7 World Trade Center building in New York. The 52-story building will have super-reinforced walls, air filters to guard against bio-terror attacks, and space-age buttonless elevators. In addition, the core of the building will be encased in 2-foot thick concrete that would protect elevators, stairs, and power systems from fire or terror attack. Interesting developments!

Although the Freedom Tower (replacing the twin-towers) is hitting snags, the developments in #7 appear to send a signal that many high-profile buildings may want to consider in the future.

Hopefully, we’ll never see the need to use the enhancements that architects and engineers are creating.

Environmentally friendly hotel rooms

The Hilton Hotel at O’Hare Airport is attempting to accommodate travelers with asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

The project was started by literally gutting several rooms in the hotel. Then the rooms were rebuilt using special wood flooring, wall coverings, fabrics, furniture, paints, adhesives and cleaning products. They are even incorporating a monitoring system that looks at several indoor air quality parameters -- temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2), relative humidity, odor and gases (TVOCs), and carbon monoxide (CO).

It appears that Hilton Corp. is now going to wait and see how much demand there will be for the new rooms. Let’s hope they continue to get the word out to those who truly need a safe haven. Article Here

Fuzzy photos

I took a trip to Corpus Christi last week. Since I was consulting on Friday afternoon, I decided to stay over through Saturday. On Saturday morning, I drove to Port Aransas to see the Sandcastle competition. Took lots of photos too!

In looking at my photos, one unfortunate issue stands out. Every one of them is blurred. It turns out that the sea spray from the Gulf of Mexico lands on everything. Sure I knew it got on my car … but never considered that it would affect the lenses of my camera … especially when I was standing some 100 yards from the water’s edge. And that explains why every one of the outside air supply units I look at – in buildings located along the Gulf of Mexico is rusted. It’s the weather!

I pressure washed my car yesterday to make sure the salt is gone. I wonder if I ought to pressure wash my camera too?

The story of a great boat anchor!

Someone (Consumer Reports) finally jumped on the Sharper Image folks who have been advertising the heck out of their Ionic Breeze air filters. Sure they've sold 2 million around the world, but that doesn't mean they are safe or effective ... and Consumer Reports has been echoing those comments for a long time.

Consumer Reports recently restated their comments, and were sued by Sharper Image. The outcome came pretty quickly ... Sharper Image backed down, and were forced to pay the Consumer Reports legal bills.

I wonder how many of those darned infomercials we're going to be seeing to pay for the costs of the lawsuit.