We must have learned from COVID-19 that improperly ventilated buildings can be a health risk. However, they keep being constructed because of a flaw in the current regulations.
A nightclub with a capacity of 1,000 people may be constructed in accordance with Australia’s National Construction Code without any ventilation. Additionally, it is feasible to construct an elderly care facility for 300 people or a school for 600 people without ventilation.
This is so that windows can be opened for natural ventilation as per the building regulations, but nothing mandates that they be opened when in use.
The air that is provided to patient rooms can be returned via hallways to the air conditioning unit in buildings where the code mandates mechanical ventilation (fans or air conditioning). A current Footscray design is typical.
This implies that in order to get to them, visitors, patients, and medical personnel must pass through airborne waste from ill people.
Rules for the water, few for the air
The code specifies requirements to guarantee the quality of water delivered through plumbing, but it makes no mention of requirements to guarantee the quality of the air or to provide a minimum level of ventilation in public buildings.
The updated Indoor Air Quality Handbook for the code is now available for review. The handbook serves as a practice manual that goes beyond the letter and spirit of the code.
Provisions that would guarantee that indoor air is devoid of particles, carcinogenic gasses like nitrogen oxide and benzine, pathogens like bacteria, mould, and fungal spores, or viruses like COVID-19 are not included in the handbook updates.
The following two conditions must be met, according to the code, for a structure to be “deemed to satisfy” air quality requirements:
Openable windows making up 5% of the floor area are used for “natural ventilation”, according to Australian Standard 1668.2, “mechanical ventilation.”
However, there are no laws or restrictions that forbid the construction of a naturally ventilated building that is used with the windows closed.
In a house, the occupant has the power to open and close windows. But in a structure that is open to the public, windows are typically out of reach for the tenants, who frequently close them in the winter or summer to regulate the temperature.
There are millions of deaths from airborne particles.
An estimated 18 billion upper airway infections and 340 million lower respiratory infections every year were attributed to acute respiratory illnesses including colds and the flu prior to the COVID, which led to more than 2.7 million fatalities and billions of dollars in economic losses.
More specifically, microscopic particles (PM 2.5) with diameters as small as 2.5 microns caused more than four million fatalities annually.
Between 17 and 25 million people have died as a result of just one airborne viral illness, COVID-19. The majority of broadcasting took place inside. A large portion of it might have been avoided with proper ventilation and HEPA filtering.
This needs to be solved from the top down with national indoor air quality rules that gradually apply to all public access facilities.
The ideal set of guidelines would include upper limits for all pollutants, including those with a width of 2.5 microns and less. These pollutants include bacteria, viruses, pollen, and spores in addition to particulates from combustion, cars, and wildfire smoke. Additionally, adequate ventilation is necessary to maintain safe levels of gaseous pollutants produced by indoor activities and building components.
Handheld instruments that assess pollutants are now reasonably accessible, affordable, and could be used to track compliance.
The cost of portable CO2 metres is low. The top priority should be the schools.
Nearly all public and low-cost schools are housed in structures that use air conditioning as a supplement to natural ventilation for heating and ventilation.
Most of the time, these systems do nothing more than recycle air, or worse, in the case of unflued gas heaters, pollute it. The choice between thermal comfort and effective ventilation shouldn’t be forced onto teachers.
This should not imply that the windows are left open all the time. It should imply that even with the windows closed, the structure is secure.
Although this will cost money, the advantages for kids are likely to outweigh the disadvantages.
The Building Codes Board has an opportunity with the revision of the Indoor Air Quality Handbook to start revising the code to properly take health into account rather than putting it off any longer.
Australia’s regulations permit poorly ventilated buildings; it’s time to rectify this.
We must have learned from COVID-19 that improperly ventilated buildings can be a health risk. However, they keep being constructed because of a flaw in the current regulations.
A nightclub with a capacity of 1,000 people may be constructed in accordance with Australia’s National Construction Code without any ventilation. Additionally, it is feasible to construct an elderly care facility for 300 people or a school for 600 people without ventilation.
This is so that windows can be opened for natural ventilation as per the building regulations, but nothing mandates that they be opened when in use.
The air that is provided to patient rooms can be returned via hallways to the air conditioning unit in buildings where the code mandates mechanical ventilation (fans or air conditioning). A current Footscray design is typical.
This implies that in order to get to them, visitors, patients, and medical personnel must pass through airborne waste from ill people.
Rules for the water, few for the air
The code specifies requirements to guarantee the quality of water delivered through plumbing, but it makes no mention of requirements to guarantee the quality of the air or to provide a minimum level of ventilation in public buildings.
The updated Indoor Air Quality Handbook for the code is now available for review. The handbook serves as a practice manual that goes beyond the letter and spirit of the code.
Provisions that would guarantee that indoor air is devoid of particles, carcinogenic gasses like nitrogen oxide and benzine, pathogens like bacteria, mould, and fungal spores, or viruses like COVID-19 are not included in the handbook updates.
The following two conditions must be met, according to the code, for a structure to be “deemed to satisfy” air quality requirements:
Openable windows making up 5% of the floor area are used for “natural ventilation”, according to Australian Standard 1668.2, “mechanical ventilation.”
However, there are no laws or restrictions that forbid the construction of a naturally ventilated building that is used with the windows closed.
In a house, the occupant has the power to open and close windows. But in a structure that is open to the public, windows are typically out of reach for the tenants, who frequently close them in the winter or summer to regulate the temperature.
There are millions of deaths from airborne particles.
An estimated 18 billion upper airway infections and 340 million lower respiratory infections every year were attributed to acute respiratory illnesses including colds and the flu prior to the COVID, which led to more than 2.7 million fatalities and billions of dollars in economic losses.
More specifically, microscopic particles (PM 2.5) with diameters as small as 2.5 microns caused more than four million fatalities annually.
Between 17 and 25 million people have died as a result of just one airborne viral illness, COVID-19. The majority of broadcasting took place inside. A large portion of it might have been avoided with proper ventilation and HEPA filtering.
This needs to be solved from the top down with national indoor air quality rules that gradually apply to all public access facilities.
The ideal set of guidelines would include upper limits for all pollutants, including those with a width of 2.5 microns and less. These pollutants include bacteria, viruses, pollen, and spores in addition to particulates from combustion, cars, and wildfire smoke. Additionally, adequate ventilation is necessary to maintain safe levels of gaseous pollutants produced by indoor activities and building components.
Handheld instruments that assess pollutants are now reasonably accessible, affordable, and could be used to track compliance.
The cost of portable CO2 metres is low. The top priority should be the schools.
Nearly all public and low-cost schools are housed in structures that use air conditioning as a supplement to natural ventilation for heating and ventilation.
Most of the time, these systems do nothing more than recycle air, or worse, in the case of unflued gas heaters, pollute it. The choice between thermal comfort and effective ventilation shouldn’t be forced onto teachers.
This should not imply that the windows are left open all the time. It should imply that even with the windows closed, the structure is secure.
Although this will cost money, the advantages for kids are likely to outweigh the disadvantages.
The Building Codes Board has an opportunity with the revision of the Indoor Air Quality Handbook to start revising the code to properly take health into account rather than putting it off any longer.