eal y rs | 17
crossroads
crossroads
W
e again find
ourselves at
crossroads in the
indoor environ-
mental industry. As
at other times in the past, the marketplace
is poised to eperience significant change,
both for the providers of IAI services
and products and for the organiations
that provide support for those companies.
here are opportunities for monumental
growth, but also eually so for failure. ot
surprisingly, we have been here before. o
have the best chance of navigating these
turbulent times to a positive end, we
must consider previous periods over the
past several decades where there were
also openings for industry growth that
began with great strides yet stumbled.
Healthy Indoors ublisher Bob rell will
be presenting this information at the
Indoor Air uality Associations Annual
Conference po this month in
Austin, eas.
Learning From the Past
he s and s were the formative
years of the industry. erms like sick build-
ing syndrome SBS, buildingrelated
illness BRI, and even IA and I began
gaining traction. entilation or insert your
service here was the solution to indoor
air pollution. umerous organiations
were formed to support these bur-
geoning indoor environmental sectors
with membership services and both
regional and national events that were
attended by literally thousands.
f course, this was effectively before
the internet becoming an information
force, so trade groups and conferences
were the only game in town at that
time. he first half of the decade saw
smoking indoors pretty much regulated
out in most parts of this country, and
a flurry of legislation aimed at improv-
ing the uality of our indoor spaces.
e had the ear of Congress with
former representatives, Henry aman
and oseph ennedy r. he ccupa-
tional Safety and Health Administration
SHA pitched an IA standard the
nvironmental rotection Agency was
