£446m on cardiovascular disease, and £750m on mental health, but less than £20m on air quality measures – most of which is only focused on outdoor pollution measures. “It can’t be right that the biggest killer gets the smallest fraction of the money…
and, in eff ect, relatively little is being spent on IEQ,” Webb said. “However, the insurance industry is starting to make its presence felt because more claims are being made for workplace ill health.” Webb explained that those developing the standard were inspired to reduce the
costs associated with ill-health and the pressures exerted on public services by poor IEQ in new and existing buildings. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), which advises government, has also
identifi ed the importance of building services engineering in addressing another growing threat to the health of building occupants – overheating. In a new report prompted by the UK breaching the 40°C mark for the fi rst time in
2022, it warned that the country was poorly prepared to deal with this “silent killer” with vulnerable groups, including the elderly and the socially disadvantaged, at greatest risk. The report: Heat resilience and sustainable cooling says that both physical and mental health are aff ected by rising temperatures with suicide risk believed to be twice as high when the temperature reaches 32°C compared with 22°C.
Retrofi t challenge
The committee of MPs also said high temperatures cost the UK economy £60bn a year due to work-related accidents and lack of sleep. It said more than 4.6 million homes in England experience summertime overheating – underlining the huge scale of the potential retrofi t challenge. “This puts a whole new complexion on the debate between retrofi t and rebuild
on the road to net zero,” said BESA’s Graeme Fox. “With the need to retrofi t both residential and commercial buildings to improve energy effi ciency already established as part of the UK’s net zero ambitions, addressing overheating must now be built into any comprehensive national retrofi t programme.” Passive cooling measures, such as green roofs and solar shading, can mitigate some of the problem and would require no additional energy input, but similarly eff orts to decarbonise heat and improve ventilation for health and well-being must be addressed simultaneously, according to BESA. “For example, improving building airtightness should not lead to additional overheating problems so long as the ventilation and cooling measures are designed alongside. In fact, the opposite is true as better building fabric with intelligent ventilation solutions makes it easier to control indoor temperatures and reduce other problems such as condensation and mould,” explained Fox. The EAC also recommended adding the use of ceiling fans to the building regulations, which is an example of how anti-overheating measures could be incorporated into existing mechanisms for incentivising quality improvements in both retrofi t and new build. However, delivering such solutions at the necessary scale will require a huge
recruitment drive to address skills shortages. The EAC also reported a potential shortfall of 250,000 people in suitable roles by 2030, which it dubbed the “net-zero tradespeople crisis”. The eff ects of poor indoor air quality cannot be overstated, not least because the WHO estimates that 3.2 million people die prematurely because of indoor pollution every year.
The availability of targeted training that references the latest standards and better understanding of the factors involved will give the building engineering sector a fi ghting chance of getting on top of this growing crisis to provide some relief to hard pressed health and social services. TR19® Air costs £75 for BESA members and £150 for non-members and can be downloaded from the BESA website. Anyone booking onto one of the BESA Academy training courses will also receive a free copy.
www.theBESA.com
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