Public funding is urgently needed to ensure schools, hospitals and thousands of homes can benefit from improved awareness of the role played by mechanical ventilation systems in reducing the risk of airborne disease, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).
The comments were made during a webinar to mark the national Clean Air Day, with a range of experts urging the Government to listen to the ventilation industry and use its expertise to improve the worsening air quality inside buildings that was brought into sharp focus during the pandemic.
The BESA webinar also called for the creation of ventilation apprenticeships to address a worrying lack of competence that had already resulted in thousands of sub-standard installations of mechanical ventilation systems in homes.
Garry Ratcliffe , CEO of Kent-based Galaxy Trust [of schools], said the Education Secretary should hear what the ventilation industry had to say because current Department for Education (DfE) Covid ventilation guidance was inadequate. He said: “Would it be acceptable advice to tell people in a workplace to open their windows and wear warmer clothes?”
He said that his three schools had already spent over £325,000 on Covid mitigation measures but had only been able to reclaim £57,000 from the Government. Each has an annual capital budget of just £7,000, which is primarily to ensure buildings remain safe and to fix leaking roofs and heating.
“If we wanted to free up money to spend on a new ventilation system, we would have to make cuts elsewhere. However, we are judged on the quality of the education we provide…not on the quality of the air.”
He added there could also be a reluctance in some schools to measure indoor air quality (IAQ) “because once you detect something you have to fix it and you probably haven’t got the money”.
Air quality monitoring specialist Douglas Booker, CEO of National Air Quality Testing Services (NAQTS), said: “Covid is the catalyst that will change things for people who have been working in this field for years because ventilation has never been more visible.”
He welcomed the news that the British Standards Institute (BSI) had agreed to fast-track new IAQ measures into its forthcoming British Standard (BS 40101 Building Performance Evaluation) due to be published in November.
For more info visit: theBESA.com/iaq
