Reasons

#IAQmatters to all of us. Providing good indoor environment is the main reason why we build buildings.

 

A bad indoor climate can have a negative impact on issues such as your and your children’s health, work productivity, study performance, and human comfort.

 


Indoor Air Quality Expert Prof. Dr. Geo Clausen from Denmark Technical University graphically outlined some key reasons on why Indoor Air Quality shall receive attention.

Most people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors

 

Most people are aware that outdoor air pollution can impact their health, but indoor air pollution can also have significant and harmful health effects

One person’s intake during a day

 

  • Chemical substances
  • Microbial agents
  • Particulate matter

Major sources of indoor chemicals in your home and office

 

  • Outdoor air
  • Occupants and pets
  • Cooking and Heating
  • Smoking (tobbaco)
  • Building materials
  • Paint, floor and wall coverings
  • Furnishings
  • Cleaning products
  • Pesticides
  • Mold/Fungi

WHO warns air pollution is killing 1.7 million young children

 

Harmful exposure can start in the womb, and then continue if infants and toddlers are exposed to air pollution

Work performance

 

Loss of work performance caused by poor air quality due to increased pollution load/decreased ventilation is experimentally estimated to be ~5%

The cost of providing a good indoor air quality in office buildings is less than 1% of the labour cost

A boost of Work performance by 5% means:

  • 25 minutes longer working days
  • Reduced number of breaks in work
  • 10 sick leave days less during the year

Schools

 

More than half of 742 classrooms investigated in Denmark were inadequately ventilated

A good Indoor Air Quality is an important component of a healthy indoor environment, and can help schools reach their primary goal of educating children

Increase of learning performance by 12% means one more year of education for your child

Using advanced filtration allows for reduction of the burden of disease by 42 %

 

Outdoor air pollution plays a significant role for the indoor exposures. Over 90% of Europeans live in areas where WHO Guidelines for PM2.5 are not attained. Efficient filtration of outdoor air allows for specific control of this component dominated by particles

Investments in productivity rise are highly profitable

 

This is because:

  • Labour cost is from 25 to 100 times higher than energy cost
  • Labour cost is from 25 to 100 times higher than maintenance cost
  • Labour cost is roughly 4 to 15 times higher than renting cost
  • Labour cost is roughly 4 to 40 times higher than construction costs