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The importance of IAQ in the public debate: White House Summit on Indoor Air Quality

White House Summit on Indoor Air Quality

Covid-19 obliged people and administrations around the world to rethink their priorities as new issues emerged. Even if it is an old problem, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is among those post-pandemic concerns, and, finally, projects and debates, like EDIAQI and the White House Summit on Indoor Air Quality, are pressing governments to intervene.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Unfortunately, for a long time, institutions and public opinion were not interested in how safe the air we breathe inside private and public buildings was, and this affected many people’s health and cost much money in sanitary expenditure and loss of performance. But, finally, since the Covid-19 pandemic, the IAQ has resurged as a topic forgotten for too long. To cope with the problem, the Horizon EU Project EDIAQI (Evidence Driven Air Quality Improvement) specifically aims to increase awareness on the topic and improve guidelines in the EU. To do so, the organisations involved will research the sources and routes of indoor air pollution and, using the collected data, create cost-effective/user-friendly monitoring solutions.

At the same time, the IAQ issue concerns experts all over the world, not only in Europe. In the US, for example, in October 2022, a summit was held in the White House, minding the same goals as EDIAQI.

The White House Summit on IAQ

After a general introduction on the issue, the event was divided into four panels: 1) Spotlight on Schools; 2) Why improving IAQ makes good business sense; 3) How clean air benefits everyone; and 4) Innovation in IAQ. The main objectives of the summit were to discuss strategies to organise and communicate, which effective actions should be taken, short- and long-term planning, and how to evaluate the results. From debates and panellists sharing their experiences, many points of reflection emerged that would benefit not only the US, but also the EU.

First of all, everyone agreed that the pandemic is a unique opportunity to make the necessary systemic changes, and it is essential to use the momentum effectively. In fact, thanks to the funding given to cope with and recover from Covid-19, many steps have been taken already – for example, now half of US schools meet MERV 13 requirements with American Rescue Plan (ARP) money – but it isn’t enough. The panellists stated that only a cultural change would really improve our conditions: “Indoor air must be seen as a public good!”. The idea is to make the efforts that were made in the past for water quality. Water is universally considered a public good, and most governments set stringent regulations for its quality, as it was – and still is in some countries in the Global South – one of the most significant sources of pathogens for the human body. As air is also one of the most common vehicles for viruses, bacteria and so on, it is difficult to understand why we pay so little attention to it.

To be fair, institutions mind air quality, but mainly outdoors, as we see all the laws approved in the EU and the US – like the 50-year-old Clean Air Act – to monitor outdoor air quality and reduce pollution outside. However, it isn’t considered that people are more subjected to outdoor pollution inside a building, where concentration levels can be 10 to 20 times higher. Moreover, according to recent studies, we spend 90% of our life indoors – being at home, school or office, travelling with cars, trains or aeroplanes – so, IAQ matters even more than outdoor air quality, as we can see calculating our Indoor Age – how many years you spent indoor in your life – multiplying your age by 0,9.

So, as “the person that manages your building has more effect on your health than your doctor, " the summit experts highlighted that we must change real estate industry practices and governments must step up and create new standards, regulations and guidelines. The first thing to do is to set stricter requirements; right now, the most used ones are those from the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers) that created the MERV (Minimum Reporting Reporting Value) scale, which measures the effectiveness of a filter. Before the pandemic, the minimum MERV valuation required was 8, which is considered a medium-quality filtration system that stops between 20% and 70% of big particles, clearly not acceptable; after the pandemic, the minimum has been raised to MERV 13, but not all buildings can support such a filtration system.

In general, to keep a building healthy – and a healthy building means a healthy community – there are nine principles, known as “the 9 foundations of healthy buildings”, that are: 1) ventilation, 2) IAQ, 3) thermal health, 4) lightening, 5) acoustics, 6) water quality, 7) managing moisture, 8) dust, and 9) safety & security; it is easy to understand how important is air for most of them. Sadly, in the past, especially since the first energetic crisis, the goal of reducing energy costs by sealing up buildings caused huge ventilation problems creating the well-known “sick building syndrome” – where the air is so contaminated that it causes illnesses to inhabitants. Air quality issues are a problem for health – keeping a good IAQ in offices can reduce sick days by up to 30%– and also for job and school performances – it has been proved that studying and working in an environment with few air changes per hour causes a lack of productivity.

Communication problems

So, if the issue is urgent and affects so many, why doesn’t it receive the attention it deserves? Because of lack of effective communication! As both the EDIAQI Project and the summit highlight, the most significant gap we have to fill, along with law requirements, is that ordinary people are unaware of what to do and how even small things can have a significant impact. Therefore, many solutions exist, as “improving IAQ is not rocket science” because “we already have the tools”. For example, as suggested by EDIAQI and a few panellists at the White House, an IAQ monitor on rooms walls, as we see thermostats, could show men and women how necessary can be everyday actions like turning on a cape while we are cooking or opening a window to let the air flow, having a device showing data improvements could make a difference.

To conclude, improving IAQ will be one of the most critical challenges of our time and making it durable and equal for all communities will be even more complicated. But if we want to be ready for the next pandemic or have a healthier life for everyone, that is what must be done.

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