The critical role that IAQ performance standards provide in support of health care facilities will be examined at the IAQ 2004 conference sponsored by ASHRAE and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). The conference, IAQ 2004 Critical Operations: Supporting the Healing Environment Through IAQ Performance Standards, will be held March 15-17, 2004, at the Tampa Convention Center, in Tampa.
Healthy indoor air is critical in providing a safe and beneficial environment for patients, health care workers and visitors to health care facilities. Providing acceptable indoor air poses unique challenges because of the diversity of functions carried out in hospitals, the sources of potential contamination, and the presence of immuno-suppressed and other highly susceptible populations, according to John F. McCarthy, conference chair.