The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced its inaugural European Conference on Indoor Air is to be held in Switzerland – and online – on September 20. The conference is free-to-attend online, but registration – which will also give delegates access to a recording for later viewing – is essential.
This pandemic demonstrated the importance of ventilation to mitigate the transmission of respiratory disease, and this new event from WHO aims to ensure that the lessons of Covid are learned, for the health of future generations. “There is growing awareness that exposure to pollutants in indoor environments has a substantial impact on health, productivity and performance. Large numbers of buildings do not have good ventilation or good indoor air quality, and there are multiple other considerations including climate change, energy, comfort, noise and security.”
The focus of the conference is to consider what is needed at a strategic level to make effective change to improve indoor environments in buildings. The event will explore the practical challenges and opportunities for understanding and mitigating poor ventilation in the most effective ways.
Air Sentry, which supplies its air management systems to the NHS, is one of the event sponsors. Managing Director Andrew Carnegie explains the importance of this event: “UK councils are starting to respond to the Environment Act 2021 with draft plans to deal with air quality, alongside the problems witnessed addressing the airborne nature of SarsCov2. This conference stands to be pivotal in helping society recognise, analyse and address the real issues around air quality facing our world today.
“The numbers recognised dying prematurely due to poor air quality in the United Kingdom are not dissimilar to that caused by tobacco smoke. Sadly this includes deaths within our hospital environments. Work by IHEEM (The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management) shows that over 60% of existing UK clinical areas do not meet good ventilation standards. On top of this, particulate pollution (particularly pm2.5) has documented effects on our environment, even down to reducing visibility whilst driving. It also contributes to global warming.
“This conference is a first step in helping formulate global strategies which will help not only for today, but for future generations moving forward.”
