Ad: Nuaire on creating safe havens

Whether you are responsible for a school or shared office spaces, providing people in your building with clean, healthy air is increasingly essential.  

The UK Government recently recognised air pollution as the most significant environmental risk to public health, costing the economy around £20bn and contributing to 20,000 premature deaths every year. Given that we spend around 90% of our time indoors, addressing the quality of the air we breathe when inside – in terms of pollutants from external sources and pathogens circulating within – is critical to bringing those figures down.  

In addressing the issue, we must look at existing legislation and regulation alongside the critical role of the HVAC industry in developing new, more efficient ways of improving IAQ.  

Removing the source of pollutants outside is undoubtedly one of the most effective solutions to the problem. There are moves to review the UK Government’s Environment Bill and Air Quality Strategy to deliver the step-change required to manage this issue.  

However, these changes will not happen overnight – in all likelihood, it will be decades before fossil fuel vehicles, one of the most significant sources of pollution, truly become a thing of the past, for example. Further clarity is needed on how to deal with the challenge of managing the spread of pathogens within buildings – a topic that can significantly impact IAQ.  

The events of the past two year’s demonstrate just how important it is to identify solutions today – helping to ensure that both external and internal air pollutants can be managed, protecting the wellbeing of building occupants.  

Revising legislation to provide more explicit requirements on how air quality is managed across different areas of a building is crucial. With the pressure to improve IAQ in shared environments stronger than ever, the HVAC industry can play a significant role in helping to ensure advances in ventilation technology help shape the indoor spaces of the future. It’s time that the industry focuses its considerable expertise to ensure we work together to keep everyone healthy wherever they are and for however long. 

Photo by Petr Magera