The International Association of Certified Indoor Air Consultants (IAC2) is the certifying body for home and commercial building inspectors who perform inspections to determine the quality of indoor air. The nonprofit association was formed to address the need for special or ancillary inspections requiring qualified professionals who are called upon to assess airborne hazards in a home or building's interior, such as mold, radon, carbon monoxide, pesticides, asbestos, lead, and other threats to human health and safety.
While some of these hazards may be naturally occurring, such as radon, the IAC2 seeks to train and certify inspectors to identify and offer recommendations for mitigation of such potentially hazardous conditions, ensuring a safe and healthy environment for a home or building's occupants.
The IAC2 was founded in 2006 by Nick Gromicko, who also founded the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI), whose headquarters are located in Boulder, Colorado. IAC2-certified inspectors must complete Continuing Education training and testing, and must follow a strict Code of Ethics. There is no cost to join for qualifying inspectors, who are eligible for other benefits, such as free education and training, and access to free marketing and other business-related materials in order to better serve the public.
The World Health Organization has published several reports concerning the hazards of indoor, airborne pathogens that threaten the health of those susceptible to mold, radon, and other biologicals versus those who may merely be sensitive but still susceptible to the illnesses such hazards pose.
Indoor air pollution is a threat worldwide, according to WHO, which estimates that 1 million children and 600,000 women die each year as a result of the lethal effects of air pollution, including pollution caused by smoking cigarettes and burning biomass fuels. Many homes in poverty-stricken Third World countries use cook stoves and heating sources that do not properly vent to the outdoors, creating potentially fatal hazards to a home's occupants. Many organizations, such as Trees, Water & People, are working to alleviate this threat by providing safe and simple-construction cook stoves for low cost or free.
The IAC2 asserts that many indoor air pollution hazards in developed countries, such as the United States and Canada in North America, as well as European countries, face similar but subtle threats to human health, especially when it comes to green technologies that are improperly installed, or components that are available but not used, such as radon mitigation systems, which are recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect against this potentially deadly yet naturally occurring carcinogen. The IAC2 sees it as their role to provide education and training to their international members to address the often under-diagnosed problem of indoor air pollution in homes and commercial buildings.