English

Jacques Whitford Environment Limited (JWEL) and Morrison Hershfield Limited (MH) have completed a research project investigating the level of risk associated with soil gases and dust in high-rise apartment buildings. The research was conducted in response to a request for proposals issued by the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC). The study investigated the hypothesis that the risk associated with gas and dust from contaminated lands can be reduced for residents of high-rise apartment buildings compared to residents of single-unit or low-rise residential structures .

Remedial measures to prevent soil gas infiltration have been implemented on many buildings affected by intrusion of radon, water vapour, methane and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs ). The success of these measures has been well documented for gases such as radon; however similar detailed documentation was not readily available for methane or other vocs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of four different remedial solutions installed on houses. All houses tested in this study had the potential of methane intrusion.