IAQ governance: Let’s fix the hardware first

In a nutshell…

The central argument is that Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) governance is an essential and currently undervalued component of creating resilient and “pandemic-proof” urban environments, particularly in the context of rapid urbanisation. Dr. Al-Attar emphasises that IAQ is not solely an environmental concern but a fundamental public health issue with far-reaching implications that extend beyond respiratory health. Effective IAQ initiatives require an Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) lens that encompasses robust government policies, technological innovation and active citizen participation.

The relentless march of urbanisation, a defining characteristic of the 21st century, presents a complex tapestry of opportunities and challenges. While cities serve as engines of economic growth and innovation, their burgeoning populations and concentrated activities often strain resources and infrastructure, leading to a multitude of environmental concerns and climate change issues. Among these, the degradation of air quality, both outdoors and indoors, stands out as a critical threat to public health and wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic further underscored the vulnerability of densely populated urban centres to airborne pathogens, shifting the focus from ensuring merely pandemic-resistant cities to the more ambitious goal of creating truly pandemic-proof urban environments. Central to achieving this paradigm shift is the robust governance of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), a factor that has long been overlooked but is now recognised as a cornerstone of urban resilience and public health security.

Rapid urbanisation complicates the challenge of maintaining healthy IAQ through interconnected pathways. Increased construction leads to dust and particulate matter, while higher population densities result in greater emissions from transportation, energy and industry, infiltrating indoor spaces. The pandemic highlighted the significance of IAQ in disease transmission, shifting the focus from surface disinfection to airborne transmission as a critical defence against respiratory viruses. Traditional measures, like mask mandates and basic ventilation adjustments, are insufficient if systems are malfuctioning or poorly maintained.

To enhance urban resilience against possible pandemics in the near or distant future, we must shift from merely preparing for outbreaks to designing pandemic-proof cities that minimise the risk of airborne disease transmission. Effective IAQ governance involves comprehensive standards, consistent monitoring, public education, integrated urban planning and collaborative innovation to protect urban populations amidst ongoing and future health challenges.

IAQ governance

Governance is essential for achieving optimal IAQ through establishing and enforcing standards for healthy air in various environments, including homes and workplaces. This involves creating stringent IAQ standards that address different pollutants and climatic conditions. Effective governance necessitates the careful application of established standards in HVAC systems, which involves customising ventilation rates to suit specific needs and adapting to varying environmental conditions. Additionally, the urgent need for adaptive air filtration systems, which operate smarter in responding to the challenges of outdoor air quality, cannot be overstated. These modern filtration systems should possess the capability to deal with various pollutant concentrations of different types, which can pose adverse health risks to human occupants. Cities should invest in reliable indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring networks to collect real-time data on pollutants. Air filter design needs to be connected to actual IAQ data to pinpoint areas for improvement. Ultimately, independent agencies should monitor IAQ data to raise public awareness and address air pollution that seeps indoors. Furthermore, significant leaps can be achieved if government organisations can incentivise innovations contributing to sustainable solutions in existing as well as future buildings.

Complexity of IAQ governance

Managing IAQ is a complex process that involves multiple stakeholders, and is influenced by such external factors as outdoor pollution and individual behavior. A comprehensive governance framework that integrates ‘Adaptive Governance’ and ‘Polycentric Governance’, informed by ‘Complexity Theory’, can form the nucleus of IAQ governance. Adaptive Governance emphasises learning and flexibility in unpredictable urban environments, allowing cities to test interventions and refine strategies based on real-world data. Polycentric Governance promotes collaboration among various authorities and stakeholders, avoiding one-size-fits-all solutions and leveraging diverse expertise. Complexity Theory helps understand non-linear interactions and emergent behaviours in urban systems, underlining the need for adaptable solutions.

Additionally, concepts such as ‘Network Governance’ and ‘Multi-level Governance’, are crucial for effective IAQ management, promoting trust, information flow, and coordinated efforts at local and global levels. Establishing a legal framework, enforcing regulations, promoting public awareness initiatives and providing support for building owners are crucial to improving IAQ and enhancing the quality of life of occupants of buildings.

Perhaps the most suitable approach to govern IAQ is ‘Adaptive Governance’, which is the most suitable approach for IAQ due to the inherent complex, dynamic and uncertain nature and variation of IAQ status and its transient sensitivity. Pollutant sources, concentrations and health impacts constantly change based on building design, occupancy, activities and outdoor conditions. On the other hand, traditional, rigid governance struggles to keep pace with the evolving needs of society.

Adaptive Governance thrives on this variability. Its principles of continuous learning, flexibility and real-time adjustment allow for effective responses to evolving IAQ challenges. It fosters collaboration among diverse stakeholders – building owners, occupants, health experts and technologists – enabling the development of tailored, data-driven solutions that benefit all parties. This iterative, responsive framework ensures IAQ management remains effective and resilient in ever-changing environments, prioritising health and wellbeing.

IAQ Goverance challenges

One significant challenge in promoting IAQ is the widespread belief that indoor environments are not perceived as a public good, accessible to and used by all community members. Unlike outdoor air or water, indoor environments are often managed collectively according to specific rules and norms. This perception persists, even though most people live and work in buildings designed, constructed and managed by third parties. The issue of IAQ is inherently diffusive, lacking a singular focal point or frequent dramatic events, such as COVID-19, to catalyse change. Additionally, the regulatory landscape surrounding IAQ is complex, encompassing a myriad of factors, including chemical pollutants, biological agents, building physics and human behaviour. Consequently, regulating IAQ is proving to be considerably more intricate than establishing emissions limits for a solitary pollutant emitted from a factory smokestack. Furthermore, challenges associated with building codes and housing standards are rarely managed at the federal scale, resulting in an inconsistent and fragmented regulatory framework across neighbourhoods, communities and cities.

Other challenges may also include:

· Insufficient scientific data

The lack of adequate scientific data for setting clear health-based standards for many indoor pollutants – especially biological ones, such as mould, bed bug droppings and dust mites (Figure 3) – poses a significant challenge for indoor environments. It is difficult to accurately measure personal exposure over time, as most indoor contaminants lack measurable indicators in the body.

· Lack of understanding of the chemistry and biology of pollutant interactions Chemical and biological interactions among indoor pollutants are complex and can vary widely.

This complexity makes it challenging to fully understand how these pollutants behave, identify their sources and track their evolution. Furthermore, their health impacts at different levels of exposure must be investigated, along with the effects of building design on these pollutants. This lack of understanding presents a significant challenge for governing IAQ effectively. Only then can evidence-based, targeted and truly effective IAQ governance frameworks be formulated to protect public health and wellbeing indoors in a proper manner.

· Privacy Issue

The issue of privacy within homes is inherently difficult to regulate – politically and legally. It is tricky to measure what happens inside private residences, as it is difficult for government agencies to establish mandatory standards that impact the type of cleaning products people use, whether they have pets or smoke indoors, and the frequency of vacuuming.

· Lack of economic analysis of optimal IAQ

The absence of global financial analysis demonstrating how improved Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) can enhance productivity and decrease absenteeism diminishes the overall interest in IAQ initiatives. Stakeholders are seeking compelling and comprehensive data on the total costs associated with illnesses and medical care, including factors like lost school days and decreased workplace productivity. They require a direct and clear correlation between these issues and dollar amounts linked to poor indoor environments. Without these economic arguments, policymakers are likely to prioritise other competing issues. Furthermore, the lack of a definitive cost associated with optimal air quality can lead to it being overlooked in decision-making processes.

Fix the hardware first!

Before we can effectively advocate for IAQ governance in our buildings and cities, it is essential to address several pressing challenges associated with HVAC systems selection, installation and maintenance. These issues include system failures, compromised air filter performance, contaminated coils with particulates and biofilms (Figure 4), filter media fractures (Figure 5), leaking filter frames, inappropriate filter selection and installation, as well as cases of disregarding specific climatic conditions and application sensitivities. Each of these factors can severely hinder an HVAC system’s ability to deliver air that meets the standards of enhanced quality, crucial for the health and wellbeing of all occupants. If the basic equipment is faulty or poorly maintained, fancy IAQ governance frameworks will not do much, and so the hardware must be fixed first.

It is not just our respiratory systems

Poor air quality has significant implications that impact nearly every facet of human health. The effects of air pollutants extend beyond respiratory conditions, influencing cardiovascular, neurological, mental and reproductive health. From a neurological standpoint, fine particulate matter can penetrate the bloodstream, potentially leading to heart attacks, strokes and hypertension by damaging blood vessels and disrupting cardiac rhythm. Additionally, substandard IAQ has been linked to mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression, thereby diminishing productivity and the overall quality of life. Furthermore, air pollution is increasingly correlated with negative pregnancy outcomes, hormonal imbalances in women and diminished sperm quality in men.

Zooming out on IAQ with the IEQ lens

A singular focus on IAQ has proven insufficient for achieving truly healthy and productive indoor environments. It is time to shift the premise and scope of IAQ’s endeavour towards a holistic IEQ lens to ensure an inclusive approach to improvement. IEQ acknowledges the complex interplay of air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, acoustics and ergonomics, recognising their synergistic impact on occupant cognitive and hedonic wellbeing. Understanding the intricate relationships among diverse contaminants, HVAC system design and operation, filtration efficiency and overall building design is paramount. This integrated approach enables more effective strategies that address the root causes of poor IEQ, resulting in more comprehensive and impactful improvements than a narrow IAQ focus alone has achieved. Embracing IEQ offers a pathway to truly optimise indoor spaces for human health and productivity. However, chasing and achieving the IEQ target can be extremely difficult to achieve. The interaction among different pollutants, such as soot and silica dust particles, VOCs with oxidising pollutants, primarily ozone, or ozone with nitrogen dioxide, are a few examples whose harmful effects can be exacerbated when they are combined. Clearly, governing IAQ, as a subset of IEQ, is not as straightforward as measuring a single pollutant from a chimney stack. To effectively address fluctuating IEQ issues, flexible strategies that facilitate the detection, measurement, mitigation and governance of pollutants are needed.

The dual responbility

The importance of addressing IAQ governance has intensified in today’s urbanised and interconnected world. Governments and communities bear significant responsibility in this context and must engage in informed decision-making to effectively manage IAQ challenges. As an essential component of IEQ, it is crucial to correlate IAQ governance with parameters, such as lighting, acoustics and thermal comfort, as these factors directly affect the health, productivity and overall wellbeing of building occupants. The role of governments in this context is instrumental. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” It is imperative to establish a clear mandate for governance that prioritises the wellbeing of its citizens, recognising that optimal air quality is a fundamental prerequisite for health and happiness. Consequently, ensuring its protection becomes a governmental responsibility. The success of IAQ initiatives depends on a combination of effective government policies, technological advancements and active citizen engagement in responsible interactions with the built environment as well as the natural world.