Five Air Quality Priorities Every Facility Should Evaluate This Year

Emerging standards, wildfire smoke, and growing health concerns are pushing facility managers to reassess ventilation, filtration, monitoring and maintenance strategies to protect indoor air quality.

• By Brian Abel
• Apr 27, 2026

Facility managers face a converging set of air quality challenges that would have been difficult to imagine a decade ago. Wildfire smoke, for example, has reached regions that were not prepared for it. Standards born from pandemic-era research have established new benchmarks for infectious aerosol control. There is also a growing body of evidence linking airborne contaminants to respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease and reduced cognitive performance, which has elevated indoor air quality on the environmental health and safety (EHS) agenda.

Meanwhile, the regulatory framework continues to tighten. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) General Duty Clause obligates employers to maintain workplaces free of recognized hazards. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) guidelines address indoor pollutant thresholds and standards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) set measurable benchmarks for ventilation and filtration.

For EHS professionals, facilities managers and safety directors, the following five considerations provide a practical framework for evaluating where your facility stands and where opportunities exist to strengthen air quality programs this year.

1. Preparing for ASHRAE 241

ASHRAE Standard 241, published in 2023 and titled Control of Infectious Aerosols, establishes requirements for minimum clean air delivery rates per occupant to reduce transmission of airborne pathogens.

A central element is the Infection Risk Management Mode (IRMM). When activated, IRMM requires facilities to meet elevated ventilation and filtration benchmarks, either by increasing outside air intake or, if cleaning with filters, requiring minimum Merv 11A ratings or higher to achieve credit for creating equivalent clean air. Filters should be tested in accordance with ASHRAE 52.2 Appendix J for sustained performance under real-world conditions.

This distinction matters as some types of filtration media will decline in performance over time. The Appendix J protocol measures whether a filter maintains its efficiency throughout its full service life. While Standard 241 is not currently enforced, that window could change quickly in the event of a hazardous outbreak. Facilities that wait until enforcement arrives will face rush conditions on equipment, filters and contractor availability. Proactive facilities are evaluating their current filtration capacity and ventilation rates now, ahead of broader enforcement.

2. Wildfire Smoke and Seasonal Air Quality Threats

Wildfire smoke has become a nationwide concern. The Rockies and the entire West Coast from California to the Pacific Northwest face recurring fire seasons, while Canadian wildfires have blanketed the Midwest and Northeast in hazardous smoke for days at a time. Fires in unexpected locations, such as the Oklahoma grassland fires in February, along with train derailments and large-structure fires, are creating air quality emergencies in communities that never planned for them.

Smoke presents a dual filtration challenge for every facility and business. Fine particulate matter requires MERV 13 filtration at a minimum, with MERV 15 providing significantly better capture. Smoke also carries gaseous compounds, odors and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which require separate technologies to address. Capturing those contaminants requires carbon-based filtration, which operates on a fundamentally different principle than particulate filters.

Facilities in regions with wildfire exposure should plan ahead and stock carbon-based odor-control filters alongside appropriately rated particulate filters before fire season and have an escalation plan for poor air-quality days.

3. Monitoring PM2.5 Levels

The old saying "you can only manage what you measure" holds especially true for indoor air quality. PM2.5 refers to particulate matter between 0.1 and 2.5 microns in diameter, invisible to the naked eye, small enough to penetrate deep into lung tissue and capable of entering the bloodstream. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the EPA link chronic PM2.5 exposure to reduced life expectancy, respiratory disease and cardiovascular complications.

Indoor operations such as welding or working with fine fibers or powders may generate elevated PM2.5 levels on their own. Facilities located near highways, industrial corridors, power plants or in major metro areas face the added challenge of elevated outdoor concentrations feeding into their HVAC systems.

The EPA's AirNow.gov provides free, real-time outdoor Air Quality Index (AQI) and PM2.5 data as a starting point for understanding what your heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is up against. Additionally, affordable handheld PM2.5 monitors can provide quick facility assessments, while larger facilities may benefit from ongoing, scheduled professional testing services. The first step is establishing a baseline. In areas or times of year when wind conditions, smog or smoke are present, consider testing weekly. 

4. HVAC Maintenance and System Integrity

Even the best filtration strategy will underperform if the HVAC system it depends on is neglected. Dirty coils reduce heat transfer efficiency and increase energy consumption. A filter is only as effective as the system delivering air through it.

Additionally, air filter construction quality matters more than many facility managers realize. Low-quality filters with poor media support or weak frames can cave in under system pressure, creating bypass where unfiltered air leaks around the filter into occupied space. In critical environments, these lower-end products may get clogged due to less dust-holding capacity than higher-grade filters. This could lead to problems maintaining critical building pressurization requirements.

Higher-quality filters typically deliver lower pressure drop across the same efficiency rating. In systems equipped with variable-frequency drives or electronically commutated motors, the lower resistance allows the equipment to ramp down fan speed and save energy.

Establish a planned maintenance schedule that includes inspection for bypass, filter integrity, coil cleanliness and overall system performance at regular intervals.

5. Evaluating Total Cost of Ownership

Purchase price is the most visible cost of a filter and one of several components that determine what that filter actually costs your facility. A total cost of ownership (TCO) filtration analysis can help optimize filtration schedules by considering costs for filters, labor, energy use and disposal. Improved solutions may help reduce equipment wear and tear.

A TCO analysis can show that slightly more expensive, higher-quality filtration choices can reduce annual ownership costs by approximately 40%, driven primarily by nearly 50% in energy savings and a doubled service interval. In one representative analysis, the higher-cost filter saved over 560 kilowatt-hours annually and avoided more than five tons of CO₂ emissions.

Ask your filter supplier for a complete total cost of ownership analysis. The cheapest filter on the purchase order is rarely the cheapest filter to own and can cost your facility more in unplanned downtime, increased energy spend and preventable air quality issues.

This article originally appeared in the April/May 2026 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.