When it comes to indoor air quality (IAQ), most people think about temperature, humidity, or maybe dust. But the real challenge often lies in the invisible gaseous and particulate contaminants that can quietly impact occupant health and comfort. That’s where ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2022 steps in with clear guidance. One of the most important references in this standard is Table 6-5, which outlines specific Design Compounds and Design Limits or contaminants of concern that every building owner, engineer, and facility manager should understand.
Why Table 6-5 Matters
Table 6-5 identifies a set of contaminants that serve as benchmarks for evaluating indoor air quality. These pollutants may sound technical and beyond your concern, but they’re far from rare. In fact, they’re commonly released by the everyday materials, activities, and equipment that fill our buildings.
By testing for and controlling these contaminants, you not only meet compliance requirements but also protect the health, productivity, and overall comfort of occupants.
Everyday Sources of Table 6-5 Contaminants
To make this list more practical, here’s how some of these pollutants show up in ordinary settings:
- Tetrachloroethylene: Often found in many cleaning products and linked with dry-cleaning chemicals.
- Formaldehyde: Frequently released from furniture, composite wood, building materials, and can even infiltrate from busy highways or industrial emissions through outdoor air.
- PM2.5 (Particulate Matter): Commonly generated by lawn care equipment, cooking activities, wildfire smoke, and even emitted by humans themselves.
- Benzene: Oftentimes produced by office equipment like printers and copiers, as well as cooking and combustion sources.
- Acetaldehyde: Common in cigarette smoke, cooking emissions, and consumer products like cosmetic aerosols.
- Xylenes & Toluene: Frequently emitted by paints, adhesives, solvents, and vehicle exhaust.
- Ozone: Can be brought in through outdoor air and produced by printers and copiers.
These examples highlight that Table 6-5 isn’t an abstract regulation. It’s a reflection of real-world exposures happening every day inside buildings.
Outdoor Air Risks
It’s important to note that many of these same contaminants are also present outdoors and sometimes even exceed their allowable limits in certain regions. When you ventilate a building, you’re not always diluting the problem; you may actually be pulling more pollutants inside. This is especially true near highways, industrial zones, or during wildfire season. In these situations, traditional reliance on outdoor air for “freshness” can put occupants at higher risk of polluted air.
How to Mitigate Exposure
The solution is not to avoid ventilation altogether, but to be smarter about how we clean and condition the air we do bring in. Air cleaners tested to ASHRAE Standards 52.2 and 145.2 are proven to remove both particulate and gaseous contaminants effectively. And if your region frequently struggles with high outdoor pollutant levels, adopting the Indoor Air Quality Procedure (IAQP) can reduce reliance on outdoor air while still ensuring compliance and safety.
The Role of IAQ Testing
Because these contaminants are often odorless and invisible, they can’t be detected without testing. That’s why IAQ testing, particularly during building commissioning and ongoing facility management, is critical. Testing against Table 6-5 contaminants provides data-driven insight into indoor environments, ensuring compliance with ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2022 while also creating safer, healthier spaces.
At the same time, it’s important to recognize the limitations of continuous monitoring devices. While they may seem convenient, they often require frequent calibration and can provide unreliable readings if not maintained properly. Periodic, lab-grade testing remains the gold standard for accuracy and compliance.
How AirBox Helps
At AirBox, we’ve developed strict IAQ Testing protocols aligned with ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2022, designed to measure the full spectrum of Table 6-5 contaminants. Our Analytical Science Group ensures precise, repeatable results, giving you confidence that your indoor air quality meets the highest standards.
Beyond testing, AirBox High-Volume Purifiers (HVPs) deliver more than compliance, they deliver control. With proven filtration technology, you can reduce outdoor air intake through IAQP by removing every contaminant listed in Table 6-5. Our Advanced Operating System (AOS) adds predictive maintenance with filter-life tracking, ensuring maximum performance without wasted replacement costs. Together, these features make AirBox the most effective way to meet standards, create healthier spaces, and protect your budget.
The contaminants may be invisible, but their impact isn’t. Taking them seriously ensures safer, higher-performing indoor environments. Don’t let ASHRAE’s Table 6-5 contaminants define your indoor air quality.
