Indoor Air Quality

CREM Co Labs (CCL) has extensive experience in and experimental facilities for studying the role of indoor air as a vehicle for human pathogenic vegetative bacteria, spore-forming bacteria, viruses, fungi and mycobacteria. It has also introduced several innovative test protocols to study microbial survival in indoor air and has assessed physical and chemical means of indoor air decontamination (Ijaz et al 2016; Kashkooli et al. 2019; Sattar et al. 2016; Zargar et al. 2016; 2019; Zargar et al. 2021). Further, it has developed a quantitative method to study simultaneous reductions in environmental surface contamination from air decontamination in the same setting (Zargar et al., 2019). CCL’s novel method for direct capture of bacteriophages such as MS2 and phi6 was published in 2021 (Zargar et al. 2021), the paper describes a novel method for assessing air decontamination technologies against airborne bacteriophages as surrogates of enveloped and non-enveloped viruses.

In 2021, CCL’s aerobiology protocols became part of ASTM International’s standards (ASTM E3273-21). CCL’s scientists were also part of the working group of Association of Home Appliance Manufactures for writing AC-5: Method for Assessing the Reduction Rate of Key Bioaerosols by Portable Air Cleaners Using an Aerobiology Test Chamber and soon after CREM Co labs became an AHAM certified lab.

CCL’s aerobiology expertise was reviewed and approved in 2022 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and in October 2022, the first air sanitizer was  registered with EPA using data generated at CCL.

CCL has two room-sized chambers (~900 cu. ft. and ~1000 cu. ft.), designed to conform to the 2012 guideline from the EPA, to assess microbial survival and inactivation in indoor air. CCL’s unique facilities and robust test protocols for studying microbial fate in air and assessing technologies claiming air decontamination comply with the guideline of the EPA.