In an age where environmental issues and concerns raise more hysteria, rather than good sense, the most prudent approach should be one of caution. If you ask yourself the question of whether your home needs an air quality test, most often that not, the basis for answering this is usually subjective rather than objective.
You may have your fears and suspicions but unless you have gone through the trouble of having an air quality test done on your own home or if certain medical conditions among members of your family have been diagnosed as mold related, then you wouldn’t really know. But should you feel that having your home tested would contribute to your peace of mind and if cost is not an issue, then by all means get an air quality test done.
Experts however say that it’s a different matter when you raise the issue within the context of a workplace or your child’s school. The matter of public or private buildings of course may bring legal questions that could turn out to be more than one has bargained for. A sensible way to approach this concern would be to gather everyone concerned for an initial assessment of the situation with a credited industry expert on hand to guide the discussions.
The industry expert will most likely tell you that there are actually no air quality standards for indoor environments such as schools and homes. Instead, there are guidelines which are simply based on proper ventilation.
The industry expert will also tell you that unless there are scientific parameters backing a suspicion for contamination, an air quality test will simply bring insignificant results. Most of the time, what can be discovered in places such as schools is background or external exposure that is in no way harmful to health at any level.
It is only when there is a definite suspicion for a certain contaminant that an air quality test can be optimally useful; it will not only confirm the presence of that particular contaminant, but will have significant results of other components it has compared the contaminant with as well.