August 12, 2022

Bill Bahnfleth, PhD, PE - Dustin Poppendieck, PhD - Alison Savage, MPH - Why Indoor Chemistry Matters! Part 2 Management of Chemicals in Indoor Environments

1 hour 10 minutes

This week we welcome Penn State Prof. Dr. Bill Bahnfleth, Dr. Dustin Poppendieck from NIST and Alison Savage from EPA’s indoor environments division for part 2 of our series on the NASEM document Why Indoor Chemistry Matters! This week we focus on the Management of Chemicals in Indoor Environments.

William Bahnfleth is a professor of architectural engineering at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in University Park, PA, where he has been employed since 1994. Previously, he was a Senior Consultant for ZBA, Inc. in Cincinnati, OH and a Principal Investigator at the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Champaign, IL. He holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, where he also earned a bachelor of music degree in instrumental performance. His is a registered professional engineer. Dr. Bahnfeth is the author or co-author of more than 170 technical papers and articles and 14 books and book chapters. He consults on the design of chilled water thermal energy storage systems and has been involved in more than 20 projects world-wide. Dr. Bahnfleth is a fellow of ASHRAE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ). He has served ASHRAE in a variety of capacities, including Student Branch Advisor, Chapter Governor, Technical Committee and Standing Committee Chair, and as Director-at-Large, Vice President, Treasurer, and 2013-14 Society President. His honors include a 1st place ASHRAE Technology Award, Transactions Paper Award, Distinguished Service and Exceptional Service Awards, The Louise and Bill Holladay Distinguished Fellow Award, the E.K. Campbell Award of Merit and the F. Paul Anderson Award. He is also a recipient of the Penn State Engineering Alumni Society’s World-Class Engineering Faculty Award.

Dustin Poppendieck is a environmental engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002. He is a fellow of the International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ). Dustin has been investigating indoor air chemistry since 2002. Most of his efforts have involved characterizing primary emission sources and heterogenous reactions at material surfaces. He has investigated emissions from kerosene can lamps used by nearly a billion people throughout the developing world, spray polyurethane foam, non-smoldering cigarette butts and indoor air cleaning devices. In addition, Dustin has studied the disinfection of biologically contaminated building materials (i.e., anthrax) using high concentrations of ozone, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen peroxide and methyl bromide.

Alison Savage, M.P.H., is a Biologist in the Indoor Environments Division (IED) in the Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA) at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is the current team leader of the Scientific Analysis Team. Since joining IED in 2018, she has worked on a wide variety of indoor air quality (IAQ) issues including reducing exposure to wildfire smoke in indoor environments, air cleaning and filtration, indoor chemistry , indoor exposure to particulate matter, and low-cost air sensors for IAQ, as well as IAQ issues related to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery for wildfires and floods. Ms. Savage manages the EPA task order that supported the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Emerging Science on Indoor Chemistry consensus study. She also manages the task order supporting the ongoing NASEM consensus study on the Health Risks of Indoor Exposures to Fine Particulate Matter and Practical Mitigation Solutions. Prior to joining EPA, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru. She holds an M.P.H. in Global Environmental Health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Michigan.

LEARN MORE at IAQ Radio!

...more