In the air tonight

The importance of air quality – as we get into what could be the latter stages of the coronavirus pandemic – has only grown.

Earlier in the year an editorial in the British Medical Journal called for governments and health leaders to focus efforts to fight Covid-19 on airborne transmission through better air quality initiatives.

Now, the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has said ventilation will be a key tool in fighting this pandemic as well as any other that may arise.

A report commissioned by Sir Patrick and published by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) a few months ago, says good ventilation inside public buildings and on transport systems is essential to reduce the risk of Covid-19 and other infections.

In the report, engineers say the importance of ventilation is too often neglected, and that the Covid-19 crisis has revealed flaws in the way the nation designs, manages and operates buildings. Unless these are addressed, they could disrupt the management of this and future pandemics, impose high financial and health costs on society and constrain our ability to address other challenges such as climate change.

Clear, consistent communication and advice on ventilation from government and professional bodies are needed to help building owners and operators to manage infection risks, states the report.

Clearly identifiable measures that can be implemented at a moderate cost will help to ensure that adequate ventilation is prioritised alongside more visible measures such as surface cleaning and social distancing.

The study also warns that there is an urgent need to plug skills and knowledge gaps and put in place the training, reskilling and recruitment needed to fill them.

In a series of evidentiary hearings, the Royal Academy of Engineering uncovered differing levels of organisational maturity across operators and sectors, and variation in the ability and motivation of owners to understand, manage and

AIR QUALITY

By Herpreet Kaur Grewal

to govern issues of infection control.

Investment in research and development is needed to clarify issues such as acceptable minimum standards for ventilation to support regulation by local authorities and others.

No ‘silver bullet’

Efforts to increase resilience to infection must also work alongside the delivery of significant carbon emission savings from our buildings. These two ambitions should be driven forward in tandem and efforts across government need to be fully coordinated.

The report warns that technological solutions are not a ‘silver bullet’, and uninformed reliance on technology can even have negative consequences. For example, air cleaning using high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters or ultraviolet light (UVC) can be effective in reducing infection risks in locations where good ventilation is hard to achieve.

Professor Peter Guthrie OBE FREng, vice-president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and chair of the NEPC infection resilient environments working group, said: “Buildings make an enormous difference to people’s health and we have often neglected this in the past, which is bad news in a pandemic because they are one of the most significant levers that we have to control infection.

“Longer term, this is a real opportunity to transform the way we design and manage our buildings to create good, healthy and sustainable environments for those who use them. We must also integrate this thinking on infection control into our approach to net zero, to prevent inadvertently hard-wiring a susceptibility to infection and other health risks into our building stock and management practices.”

Dr Hywel Davies CChem CSci, technical director at the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, said: “We need to support owners and operators with clear and simple guidance, emphasising the importance of improving ventilation while maintaining wider good practice on infection control.”

However, in its response, the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) said the report misses some “crucial practicalities”.

BESA said the problem was that many buildings were designed in a way that made it extremely difficult and sometimes costprohibitive to fit the systems needed to achieve adequate

ventilation. It said the government should link its ambitions for climate change mitigation and sustainability to work on ventilation and overheating in buildings and consult with all parts of the engineering and construction sectors to get a joined-up solution.

Graeme Fox, BESA’s head of technical, said: “It is very positive that the government’s top scientist recognises the importance of raising standards of building ventilation to deal with this and future pandemics, but he is only getting part of the picture.”

Fox said professional institutions’ theoretical expertise and design philosophies had to align “with industry practitioners who operate at the sharp end and know what is achievable”.

BESA believes that building designers needed to consider practical measures such as allowing enough space in ceiling voids to add or improve mechanical ventilation systems. Enabling access for maintenance purposes, cleaning ventilation ductwork and fitting or renewing air filters were other crucial factors often overlooked during design and fit-out phases.

Overheating in buildings poses risk

The association also highlighted the recent report from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which warned that many new buildings were being developed without adequate adaptation measures, which means they would be prone to overheating as the climate warms up.

The CCC identified overheating in buildings as a

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major climate change risk and m ma majajojoror cr cl cl health emergency in 2016, but h he heaealalth lthh e e since then 570,000 new homes si sinincncece te th th h had been built without climate eh ha hadad d bbeee adaptation measures and a ad adadap apptatatati ti further 1.5 million were due to f fuurrth thherer r1 be built in the next five years. b be be e bbuuil uilt lt t

Fox said there were more F Fooxx s x sa sa 5 than 2,500 heat-related deaths t thha hanan 2n 2,2,5 during the 2020 heatwave in duuri triningng g t England, which was higher E En Engnglglalanand nd than at any time since records th thahanan n aat ta began, and that the CCC b beegga ganan, n, a a expected heat-related deaths e ex expxpepecectcted ted to treble by 2050.

Fox said: “The government needs to understand the concept of a sustainable built environment in the widest sense… Sustainability is not just about carbon and energy saving, it is also about ensuring that the facilities we build and refurbish are able to sustain human activity in the long term while also safeguarding health, wellbeing, and productivity.

“It is highly possible that a huge proportion of the homes and commercial buildings being designed now will no longer be inhabitable in a few years’ time because they are too difficult to cool and ventilate.”

He added: “The vast majority of the work needed to create safe and healthy indoor spaces will be retrofitted and so we need a strong focus on low-cost, practical measures that can actually make a difference to people’s lives… Professional institutions should not be expected to provide that kind of work on their own. This requires a joined-up approach from the whole construction and building engineering supply chain.”

MITIGATING MEASURES

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS IN THE REPORT

1Government should urgently map the knowledge and skills requirements across the building industry, general businesses, and the engineering professions and put in place plans to address the skills gaps identified. 2 Government should undertake a rapid review of the capacity and capability requirements among regulators (including local authorities) to support and enforce standards in maintaining buildings for public health. 3 Working with the National Core Studies Programme, UKRI and the National Academies, the government should put in place an action plan to address key research gaps on an accelerated basis. 4 Action to meet Net Zero must be developed in a fashion that is consistent with priorities around indoor air quality and rendering buildings resilient to infections.