NEWS
New CIBSE president talks covid, climate change and sleeping frogs
A
more diverse profession is essential to help us build resilience against future crises and better respond to the pandemic and climate change, Kevin Kelly, incoming president of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) said in his Presidential Address.
Mr Kelly pointed to the “warning shots” of the SARS, MERS and Ebola outbreaks that should have spurred an international effort to prepare for a pandemic. Instead, lulled into a false sense of security by the containment of these warning shots, the world was woefully unprepared to deal with the arrival of COVID 19.
Mr Kelly used the analogy of a sleeping frog – apparently a frog immersed in water that is being heated simply sleeps until it is boiled – to describe this behaviour and speculated that climate change threatens to be the next and arguably most significant sleeping frog of all.
Outlining the central role being taken by CIBSE experts in analysing and responding to the threats posed by Climate Change he warned that our industry needs to take a lead in building strongest possible defence.
In his view, this demands positive action to improve inclusivity and diversity within the field of building services engineering. Kelly outlined
his own experience of combatting not just overt discrimination but unconscious bias and stated his commitment to using his presidential term to support positive change.
As a University Professor who started his career as an apprentice electrician there could perhaps be no-one better suited to encouraging diverse routes to qualification and entry into a Chartered Profession. Kelly warns that challenging the status quo will require a willingness “to have the awkward and difficult conversations ahead and lean into them in order to change our industry for the better by making it more inclusive and welcoming to all.”
Calls for regulation of low indoor humidity M
any studies have shown that dry indoor air is a significant contributing
factor to the rise of seasonal respiratory illness. A group of 17 internationally recognised scientists has called upon the UK Government to implement a minimum lower limit of indoor humidity in public buildings to protect against respiratory infection and mitigate the risk of future pandemics.
The scientists submitted an open letter in response to a consultation invited by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, on a recently proposed update to indoor ventilation regulations.
Many of the scientists supporting the letter have directly studied
and written papers on the impact of indoor humidity on aerosol transmission and respiratory infections. Their letter states that UK public buildings should be maintaining indoor humidity at above 40% relative humidity (%RH), because below this level: Our respiratory immune system is impaired, leaving us more susceptible to infections
Exhaled aerosols, containing infectious viruses, remain airborne for longer, increasing the risk of subsequent cross-infection
Many viruses survive for longer and remain infectious in dry air.
Dr Stephanie Taylor, a Harvard Medical School infection control
consultant and the lead author of the letter, said: “Indoor humidity in the UK can drop below 40%RH during the winter, as heating systems dry the air. Many studies have shown that dry indoor air is a significant contributing factor to the rise of seasonal respiratory illness. It is very possible for buildings to maintain a healthy level of indoor humidity by using humidifiers, and many building operators do so during the winter for this reason. However, without mandatory building regulations, it is left to the discretion of the building operator whether they invest in this type of indoor air quality management for the protection of occupants.
“Through the updating of the UK’s
building ventilation codes, entitled The Future Buildings Standard, the UK government has an opportunity to implement the necessary measures to mandate a healthy indoor humidity year-round. The scientific evidence has shown that this would reduce the seasonality of respiratory infections. However, in the Government’s draft proposals there is no mention of needing to maintain a minimum lower limit of indoor humidity for health or any recognition of the abundance of scientific knowledge on the topic.
“This is why this collaboration of scientists, who are hugely informed on the topic, have felt compelled to respond to the Government’s consultation.”
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