Mold Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

Appendix F: Glossary and Acronyms

ACGIH — American Conference of
Governmental Industrial Hygienists.

materials, windows, and walls, that enclose
the internal space.

ASHRAE — American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Building-Related Illness — Diagnosable
illness whose symptoms can be identified
and whose cause can be directly attributed
to airborne building pollutants (e.g.,
Legionnaire’s disease, hypersensitivity
pneumonitis).

ASTM — American Society for Testing
and Materials.
Air Cleaning — An IAQ control strategy
to remove various airborne particulates
and/or gases from the air. The three types
of air cleaning most commonly used are
particulate filtration, electrostatic precipitation, and gas sorption.
Air Exchange Rate — Used in two ways:
1) the number of times that the outdoor air
replaces the volume of air in a building per
unit time, typically expressed as air
changes per hour; 2) the number of times
that the ventilation system replaces the air
within a room or area within the building.
Antimicrobial — Agent that kills microbial growth. See “disinfectant,” “sanitizer”, and “sterilizer.”
BRI — See “Building-Related Illness.”
Biological Contaminants — Agents
derived from or that are living organisms
(e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi, and mammal
and bird antigens) that can be inhaled and
can cause many types of health effects
including allergic reactions, respiratory
disorders, hypersensitivity diseases, and
infectious diseases. Also referred to as
“microbiologicals” or “microbials.”
Breathing Zone — Area of a room in
which occupants breathe as they stand, sit,
or lie down.
Building Envelope — Elements of the
building, including all external building

CFM — Cubic feet per minute.
CO — Carbon monoxide.
CO2 — Carbon dioxide.
Ceiling Plenum — Space below the
flooring and above the suspended ceiling
that accommodates the mechanical and
electrical equipment and that is used as
part of the air distribution system. The
space is kept under negative pressure.
Commissioning — Start-up of a building
that includes testing and adjusting HVAC,
electrical, plumbing, and other systems to
assure proper functioning and adherence to
design criteria. Commissioning also
includes the instruction of building
representatives in the use of the building
systems.
Conditioned Air — Air that has been
heated, cooled, humidified, or dehumidified to maintain an interior space within
the “comfort zone.” (Sometimes referred to
as “tempered” air.)
Constant Air Volume Systems — Air
handling system that provides a constant
air flow while varying the temperature to
meet heating and cooling needs.
Dampers — Controls that vary airflow
through an air outlet, inlet, or duct. A
damper position may be immovable,
manually adjustable, or part of an automated control system.

Glossary and Acronyms 153

Diffusers and Grilles — Components of
the ventilation system that distribute and
diffuse air to promote air circulation in the
occupied space. Diffusers supply air and
grilles return air.
Disinfectants — One of three groups of
antimicrobials registered by EPA for
public health uses. EPA considers an
antimicrobial to be a disinfectant when it
destroys or irreversibly inactivates
infectious or other undesirable organisms,
but not necessarily their spores. EPA
registers three types of disinfectant
products based upon submitted efficacy
data: limited, general or broad spectrum,
and hospital disinfectant.
EPA — United States Environmental
Protection Agency.
ETS — Environmental tobacco smoke.
Environmental Agents — Conditions
other than indoor air contaminants that
cause stress, comfort, and/or health
problems (e.g., humidity extremes, drafts,
lack of air circulation, noise, and overcrowding).
Ergonomics — Applied science that
investigates the impact of people’s
physical environment on their health and
comfort (e.g., determining the proper chair
height for computer operators).
Exhaust Ventilation — Mechanical
removal of air from a portion of a building
(e.g., piece of equipment, room, or general
area).
Gas Sorption — Devices used to reduce
levels of airborne gaseous compounds by
passing the air through materials that
extract the gases. The performance of
solid sorbents is dependent on the airflow
rate, concentration of the pollutants,
presence of other gases or vapors, and
other factors.

Hypersensitivity Diseases — Diseases
characterized by allergic responses to
animal antigens. The hypersensitivity
diseases most clearly associated with
indoor air quality are asthma, rhinitis, and
hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Hypersensitivity pneumonitis is a rare but serious
disease that involves progressive lung
damage as long as there is exposure to the
causative agent.
IAQ — Indoor air quality.
IPM — Integrated pest management.
Indicator Compounds — Chemical
compounds, such as carbon dioxide, whose
presence at certain concentrations may be
used to estimate certain building conditions (e.g., airflow, presence of sources).
MCS — See “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.”
MSDS — Material Safety Data Sheet.
Make-up Air — Air brought into a
building from the outdoors through the
ventilation system that has not been
previously circulated through the system.
Microbiologicals — See “Biological
Contaminants.”
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity — A term
used by some people to refer to a condition
in which a person is considered to be
sensitive to a number of chemicals at very
low concentrations. There are a number of
views about the existence, potential causes,
and possible remedial actions regarding
this phenomenon.
NIOSH — National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
NTIS — National Technical Information
Service.

HEPA — High efficiency particulate
arrestance (filters).

Negative Pressure — Condition that
exists when less air is supplied to a space
than is exhausted from the space, so the air
pressure within that space is less than that
in surrounding areas.

HVAC — Heating, ventilation, and airconditioning system.

OSHA — Occupational Safety and Health
Administration.

154 Appendix F

PELs — Permissible Exposure Limits
(standards set by OSHA).
PM — Preventive Maintenance.
Plenum — Air compartment connected to
a duct or ducts.
Positive Pressure — Condition that exists
when more air is supplied to a space than
is exhausted, so the air pressure within that
space is greater than that in surrounding
areas.
Psychosocial Factors — Psychological,
organizational, and personal stressors that
could produce symptoms similar to poor
indoor air quality.
RELs — Recommended Exposure Limits
(recommendations made by NIOSH).
Radiant Heat Transfer — Radiant heat
transfer occurs when there is a large difference between the temperatures of two
surfaces that are exposed to each other, but
are not touching.
Re-entrainment —Situation that occurs
when the air being exhausted from a building is immediately brought back into the
system through the air intake and other
openings in the building envelope.
SBS — See “Sick Building Syndrome.”
Sanitizer — One of three groups of antimicrobials registered by EPA for public
health uses. EPA considers an antimicrobial to be a sanitizer when it reduces but
does not necessarily eliminate all the microorganisms on a treated surface. To be a
registered sanitizer, the test results for a
product must show a reduction of at least
99.9% in the number of each test microorganism over the parallel control.
Short-circuiting — Situation that occurs
when the supply air flows to exhaust registers before entering the breathing zone. To
avoid short-circuiting, the supply air must
be delivered at a temperature and velocity
that results in mixing throughout the space.
Sick Building Syndrome — Term sometimes used to describe situations in which

building occupants experience acute health
and/or comfort effects that appear to be
linked to time spent in a particular building, but where no specific illness or cause
can be identified. The complaints may be
localized in a particular room or zone, or
may be spread throughout the building.
Soil Gases — Gases that enter a building
from the surrounding ground (e.g., radon,
volatile organics, pesticides).
Stack Effect —Pressure-driven airflow
produced by convection as heated air rises,
creating a positive pressure area at the top
of a building and a negative pressure area
at the bottom of a building. The stack
effect can overpower the mechanical system and disrupt ventilation and circulation
in a building.
Static Pressure — Condition that exists
when an equal amount of air is supplied to
and exhausted from a space. At static
pressure, equilibrium has been reached.
Sterilizer — One of three groups of antimicrobials registered by EPA for public
health uses. EPA considers an antimicrobial to be a sterilizer when it destroys or
eliminates all forms of bacteria, fungi,
viruses, and their spores. Because spores
are considered the most difficult form of a
microorganism to destroy, EPA considers
the term sporicide to be synonymous with
“sterilizer.”
TLVs — Threshold Limit Values (guidelines recommended by ACGIH).
TVOCs — Total volatile organic compounds.
Tracer Gases — Compounds, such a
sulfur hexafluoride, which are used to
identify suspected pollutant pathways and
to quantify ventilation rates. Tracer gases
may be detected qualitatively by their odor
or quantitatively by air monitoring equipment.
VAV — Variable air volume system.
VOCs — See “Volatile Organic Compounds.”

Glossary and Acronyms 155

Variable Air Volume System — Air
handling system that conditions the air to a
constant temperature and varies the outside
airflow to ensure thermal comfort.
Ventilation Air — Defined as the total air,
which is a combination of the air brought
into the system from the outdoors and the
air that is being recirculated within the
building. Sometimes, however, used in
reference only to the air brought into the
system from the outdoors.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) —
Compounds that evaporate from the many
housekeeping, maintenance, and building

156 Appendix F

products made with organic chemicals.
These compounds are released from
products that are being used and that are in
storage. In sufficient quantities, VOCs can
cause eye, nose, and throat irritations,
headaches, dizziness, visual disorders,
memory impairment; some are known to
cause cancer in animals; some are suspected of causing, or are known to cause,
cancer in humans. At present, not much is
known about what health effects occur at
the levels of VOCs typically found in
public and commercial buildings.
WHO — World Health Organization.

Mold Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

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Mold Glossary of Terms and Acronyms