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Mandating indoor air quality for public buildings : if some countries lead by example, standards may increasingly become normalized

Morawska, Lidia ; Allen, Joseph ; Bahnfleth, William ; Bennett, Belinda ; Bluyssen, Philomena M. ; Boerstra, Atze ; Buonanno, Giorgio ; Cao, Junji ; Dancer, Stephanie J. and Floto, Andres , et al. (2024) In Science 383(6690). p.1418-1420
Abstract
People living in urban and industrialized societies, which are expanding globally, spend more than 90% of their time in the indoor environment, breathing indoor air (IA). Despite decades of research and advocacy, most countries do not have legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of IA pollutants. Few building codes address operation, maintenance, and retrofitting, and most do not focus on airborne disease transmission. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made all levels of society, from community members to decision-makers, realize the importance of IAQ for human health, wellbeing, productivity, and learning. We propose that IAQ standards be mandatory for public spaces.... (More)
People living in urban and industrialized societies, which are expanding globally, spend more than 90% of their time in the indoor environment, breathing indoor air (IA). Despite decades of research and advocacy, most countries do not have legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of IA pollutants. Few building codes address operation, maintenance, and retrofitting, and most do not focus on airborne disease transmission. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made all levels of society, from community members to decision-makers, realize the importance of IAQ for human health, wellbeing, productivity, and learning. We propose that IAQ standards be mandatory for public spaces. Although enforcement of IAQ performance standards in homes is not possible, homes must be designed and equipped so that they could meet the standards.

For the past two decades, scientists have called for national IAQ standards and laws to be established (2), but so far, little action has been taken. The approach to IA contrasts sharply with outdoor air, for which quality is regulated and monitored and compliance with regulations is enforced. The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) published in 2021 provide recommendations for concentration levels of six pollutants and their averaging times (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, CO, and O3) and apply to both outdoor air and IA (3).

In cases for which IAQ standard and guideline values were established by national or association working groups, the outcomes were inconsistent; often the criteria for the same parameter differed by orders of magnitude. The reasons cited for limited progress include different criteria in the selection of the critical study, in the starting point, and in the derivation procedure; the complex political, social, and legislative situation regarding IAQ; the lack of an open, systematic, and harmonized approach; and that establishing an IAQ standard is always the result of a compromise between scientific knowledge and political will. Because of the heterogenous landscape of approaches needed, such barriers remain intact despite the considerable IAQ research and evidence base developed over the past decades. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Science
volume
383
issue
6690
pages
3 pages
publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:38547291
  • scopus:85188195187
ISSN
0036-8075
DOI
10.1126/science.adl0677
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
13f910ef-9584-4708-9cdc-7da69eaa2cec
date added to LUP
2024-05-06 14:45:38
date last changed
2024-05-15 15:11:56
@article{13f910ef-9584-4708-9cdc-7da69eaa2cec,
  abstract     = {{People living in urban and industrialized societies, which are expanding globally, spend more than 90% of their time in the indoor environment, breathing indoor air (IA). Despite decades of research and advocacy, most countries do not have legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of IA pollutants. Few building codes address operation, maintenance, and retrofitting, and most do not focus on airborne disease transmission. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made all levels of society, from community members to decision-makers, realize the importance of IAQ for human health, wellbeing, productivity, and learning. We propose that IAQ standards be mandatory for public spaces. Although enforcement of IAQ performance standards in homes is not possible, homes must be designed and equipped so that they could meet the standards.<br/><br/>For the past two decades, scientists have called for national IAQ standards and laws to be established (2), but so far, little action has been taken. The approach to IA contrasts sharply with outdoor air, for which quality is regulated and monitored and compliance with regulations is enforced. The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQG) published in 2021 provide recommendations for concentration levels of six pollutants and their averaging times (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, CO, and O3) and apply to both outdoor air and IA (3).<br/><br/>In cases for which IAQ standard and guideline values were established by national or association working groups, the outcomes were inconsistent; often the criteria for the same parameter differed by orders of magnitude. The reasons cited for limited progress include different criteria in the selection of the critical study, in the starting point, and in the derivation procedure; the complex political, social, and legislative situation regarding IAQ; the lack of an open, systematic, and harmonized approach; and that establishing an IAQ standard is always the result of a compromise between scientific knowledge and political will. Because of the heterogenous landscape of approaches needed, such barriers remain intact despite the considerable IAQ research and evidence base developed over the past decades.}},
  author       = {{Morawska, Lidia and Allen, Joseph and Bahnfleth, William and Bennett, Belinda and Bluyssen, Philomena M. and Boerstra, Atze and Buonanno, Giorgio and Cao, Junji and Dancer, Stephanie J. and Floto, Andres and Franchimon, Francesco and Greenhalgh, Trish and Haworth, Charles and Hogeling, Jaap and Isaxon, Christina and Jimenez, Jose L. and Kennedy, Amanda and Kumar, Prashant and Kurnitski, Jarek and Li, Yuguo and Loomans, Marcel and Marks, Guy and Marr, Linsey C. and Mazzarella, Livio and Melikov, Arsen Krikor and Miller, Shelly L. and Milton, Donald K. and Monty, Jason and Nielsen, Peter V. and Noakes, Catherine and Peccia, Jordan and Prather, Kimberly A. and Querol, Xavier and Salthammer, Tunga and Sekhar, Chandra and Seppänen, Olli and Tanabe, Shin Ichi and Tang, Julian W. and Tellier, Raymond and Tham, Kwok Wai and Wargocki, Pawel and Wierzbicka, Aneta and Yao, Maosheng}},
  issn         = {{0036-8075}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  number       = {{6690}},
  pages        = {{1418--1420}},
  publisher    = {{American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}},
  series       = {{Science}},
  title        = {{Mandating indoor air quality for public buildings : if some countries lead by example, standards may increasingly become normalized}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adl0677}},
  doi          = {{10.1126/science.adl0677}},
  volume       = {{383}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}