In the last few years, publicity and sensationalism surrounding polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCB) in window and façade caulking has gained ground and created a situation today where its sudden discovery is delaying ongoing construction projects and forcing building owners into difficult short-term remediation programs costing millions of dollars.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is more aggressively enforcing a variety of permitting regulations that impact a wide variety of businesses, including typical office facilities. For many pollutant sources and processes, such as those with large emissions of volatile organic compounds or the use of hazardous materials, it is clear that environmental permits are likely required. What is less intuitive to the business owner, however, is that there are also regulatory requirements for many types of emergency generators, boilers and even batteries!

As a single-person office responsible for all of the environmental health and safety issues at Wellesley College, a small, liberal arts school outside Boston, Suzanne Howard frequently called on the experts at EH&E for advice and support. When Howard learned that EH&E was developing a new web-based software product to help colleges and universities manage their environmental health and safety programs (EH&S), she immediately purchased it for Wellesley.

When Trane Residential Systems decided to test the performance of Trane’s CleanEffects™ whole house air cleaning system, they knew they wanted to apply a more applicable test than called for by the industry standard protocol developed by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM). To carry out a more realistic approach to testing a whole house air cleaning system, Trane called on the expertise and experience of EH&E and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).