Health Effects of Modern Airtight Construction: Follow-on funding

The way that buildings have been designed and constructed has changed rapidly in recent years, driven to a significant extent by the need to meet challenges of climate change and energy costs, but also to reduce costs and respond to changes in tenure and demographics such as ageing populations. There is concern that smaller buildings, with reduced natural infiltration, increased insulation and limited ventilation, in addition to increasing sources of chemicals and moisture in buildings could be having a significant detrimental impact on indoor air quality (IAQ). The question arising from this is what the health impacts of this might be. A successful application was made to the AHRC to establish the Health Effects of Modern Airtight Construction (HEMAC) network which brought together public health and building professionals with architects and their clients to identify shared research questions and develop ways of addressing these issues, with an overall aim of supporting the design of healthy, low energy homes. The HEMAC network bridged the gap between these fields, using a trans-disciplinary dialogue driven by architectural design to identify relationships, risks and opportunities between design of housing and public health in the 21st century.

The network has gathered together a wider range of knowledge and expertise and has produced a number of research proposals, but it became clear during the workshops that there is a significant gap in knowledge and awareness of the issues of ventilation, IAQ and health within the design communities, landlords, and building occupants.

The aim of this follow-on project therefore is collate the knowledge generated by the network and translate this into information that can be used by a number of different audiences. These include end users of buildings via occupant guides, but also engagement with patient groups that are particularly affected by these issues. The project will produce design guidance and CPD information for use by architects and clients that identify good practice for designing for good IAQ in terms of ventilation and source control. It will also facilitate workshop sessions with policy makers to identify legislative and policy needs.

The HEMAC network, whilst identifying significant gaps in knowledge, nevertheless gathered contemporary evidence on the relationships between health and ventilation in modern homes. It is therefore important to communicate this knowledge to a variety of public stakeholders and agencies as a means to influence design of homes to improve ventilation and health. This a crucial time to undertake this dissemination, firstly given increasing concerns about air quality and secondly given the UK Government target to deliver 300,000 new homes and the Scottish Government target of 50,000 homes. Advice that may influence the design and use of these has the potential to make a significant impact on issues of IAQ and consequent public health for those occupants. As well as influencing new homes, the knowledge being generated by the network is of value to many millions of existing households as the issues are applicable to older homes, particularly those undergoing retrofit.
The activity will therefore impact on four distinct groups:
i) Building occupants and their representatives (e.g. landlords and Housing Associations) and building owners. We will reach this group through advice contained in occupant guides that aims to lead to increased awareness of IAQ issues and to influence behavioural change both in clients (such as improved requirements for ventilation and pollution control) and occupants (though improved utilisation of ventilation provision and pollutant reduction).
ii) Specific dissemination will be directed at vulnerable groups. These are occupants and representative participants (e.g. clinicians) with medical conditions that may be particularly affected by IAQ, such a Asthma and COPD. We will undertake focus groups to explore key issues and design requirements for particular conditions that will lead to specific advice for these groups, and the gathering of information about the particular needs of these groups.
iii) Construction companies and architects across the UK with national standing. We will disseminate improved design advice and professional development to building designers concerning aspects such as building material pollutant sources, and effective strategies for ventilation to improve health. A design guide and continuing professional development (CPD) courses will be developed. This has the potential to impact the design of all new homes and retrofit for existing households.
iv) Policy makers and client groups. The follow-on study will also aim to impact on building legislation and funding by connecting policy makers legislators to the research knowledge emerging from the network and subsequent research. It is timely as it will be able to feed into to current debates about regulation in the construction industry and the current drive for the production of new homes.

The ultimate impact objective is to improve the health and well-being of occupants of contemporary homes, by targeting each of these distinct groupings we believe we can achieve this on a holistic manner. Information and media generated from this project will also be used to support other dissemination and KE activities such as invited talks and presentations. It will also be used in CPD and Masters course content.