Setting the Scene: Poor IAQ, Health Impacts and Solutions Available

Dr Marcella Uccim.ucci@ucl.ac.uk

Better Homes, Better Air, Better Health12 April 2017

• Solutions – to which problems? • Outline of some key issues• Some pathways for way forward

Outline

“a problem well put is half solved” (Dewey)

• Outdoor vs Indoor Air • Source Control vs Ventilation• Prioritising

– Proxies of air quality– Lack of useful data on indoor exposures– Dose response relationships– Stakeholders alignment

• Policy and Governance – new and existing homes• Link to other dimensions: e.g. energy efficiency of building stock,

market forces and housing crisis

Some Key Issues

The Outdoor Pollution and Indoor Air Quality ParadoxOutdoor Sources and Ventilation

Indoor Exposures to Airborne Pollutantshttps://staysafemagazine.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/allwergens.jpg

Designing Out Poor Indoor Air Quality = Ventilation (and Source Control)

Health Inequalities: Data from English Housing Survey, 2014

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/dwelling-condition-and-safety

Table DA5102 (SST5.2): Damp and mould - areas, 2014% of dwellings within group

anydamp

risingdamp

penetratingdamp

condensation/mould

area typeall city and urban centres 7.6 2.3 4.3 4.5suburban residential 3.1 0.9 1.0 2.0all rural areas 4.1 1.5 1.6 2.1deprived local areasmost deprived 10% of areas 7.5 2.3 3.4 5.22nd 6.9 1.9 3.0 4.63rd 5.3 1.1 2.3 4.14th 5.9 2.5 2.2 2.85th 4.8 2.0 1.9 3.36th 2.6 0.9 1.2 0.97th 3.4 0.7 1.7 1.88th 2.5 0.9 0.8 1.09th 2.1 0.8 0.6 1.0least deprived 10% of areas 1.4 u 0.8 0.8all dwellings 4.3 1.3 1.8 2.6

Note: outdoor air pollution levels often found greater in deprived areas

No quantitative health-based guideline values or thresholds can be recommended for acceptable levels of contamination. Instead it is recommended that dampness and mould-related problems be prevented”. (WHO Guidelines, 2009, page 15).

Dampness in UK housing: a socio-technical problem?

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2014/12/08/wolverhampton-couple-with-baby-complain-over-mould-filled-house/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/27/damp-social-housing-residents-heating-energy-bills

‘How to get a council house’, Channel 4, 16 Apr 2016. Baby with Bronchiolitis. Parents told mould is a ‘lifestyle’ problem

Paradox: these residents would be advised to open the windows and increase ventilation – yet air outside might be heavily polluted. And they may not be able to afford heat lost

Ø Energy Costs, and Fuel povertyØ Energy efficiency in housing & health: co-benefits and unintended

consequences Ø The housing crisis:

ØOvercrowdingØRented sector - poor quality can be tolerated due to limited supplyØDrive for Small spaces

Ø Knowledge and risk perception of stakeholders and householdsØ Lack of guidance and signposting – including understanding risk perception

and impact on behaviour

Further Pressures: social and economic drivers

• Set up in 2003, to co-ordinate and provide a focus for UK activity concerned with improving indoor environments for people.

• We are a unique, independent and impartial multidisciplinary network of professionals working in the indoor environment field.

• We are committed to promoting the development, synthesis, dissemination and application of evidence relating to policy and practice in the UK indoor built environment, with the ultimate aim of improving health and wellbeing.

www.ukieg.org

Aligning Stakeholders: the UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG)

1. This is not, in its essence, a design or technological problem. Bringing together all stakeholders and framing the problem correctly is first priority.

2. Breaking the silos: outdoor vs indoor, ventilation vs source control

3. Evidence and prioritisation: data on indoor exposures, testing validity of current approaches to proxy measures, dose-response relationship

4. Approaching the problem as a socio-technical, complex system. New transdisciplinary approaches needed to develop integrated solutions for correctly posed problems.

Conclusions: Key Issues

Dr Marcella Ucci, m.ucci@ucl.ac.ukwww.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/environmental-design/www.ukieg.org