BESA launches online IAQ awareness course aimed at building owners and operators

The Building Engineering Services Association has launched a ‘basic awareness’ online training course for indoor air quality (IAQ).

The short course explains the importance of IAQ; the main airborne contaminants that affect buildings; their sources; and the impact on the indoor environment caused by outdoor pollution.

It was developed by the association’s online training academy and is based on a series of guides produced by BESA’s Indoor Air Quality group promoting the concept of buildings as ‘safe havens’ from polluted outside air.

It is not designed to lead to a technical qualification but will help anyone who needs to put together an IAQ strategy for their building and be more aware of the threats to health, well-being and productivity posed by poor air quality.

It should also equip them with enough knowledge to be able to ask informed questions and establish the kind of technical intervention required, BESA added, allowing the appointment of ventilation or IAQ specialists to carry out improvement or remedial work.

BESA says the training will provide a useful introduction for anyone interested in the subject including those with some working knowledge of building services but who need to have a deeper understanding of IAQ. It is also suitable for people from a non-technical background keen to expand their knowledge so they can make better informed decisions about their indoor environments.

The launch of the course follows the most recent national Clean Air Day which highlighted the growing threat to health and well-being posed by polluted indoor air, and last month’s publication of the first British Standard for health & wellbeing in buildings.

Adam Taylor, vice chair of BESA’s Indoor Air Quality group, urged the government to mount a public awareness campaign similar to those that featured celebrities highlighting the risks posed by car crashes and household fires – which account for fewer deaths than pollution. He said:

The annual mortality of human-made air pollution in the UK is roughly equivalent to between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths every year, Globally, household air pollution was responsible for an estimated 3.2 million deaths per year in 2020.

He added that lack of public awareness was at least partially due to the way that IAQ information is presented.Adam said:

We gather lots of data but that has to be translated into actionable insights.

The BESA awareness course provides a series of practical measures that building owners and operators can take to address IAQ concerns including measuring and monitoring airborne contaminants, checking and improving ventilation systems, and understanding the role of filtration and regular maintenance of air systems.

It takes around 45 minutes to complete the course online and it can be undertaken in a series of manageable ‘bite sized’ chunks at the user’s convenience from home or work, the body said. It costs £15 plus VAT for BESA members and £25 plus VAT for non-members.

BESA intends the training to support its messages to contractors, developers, designers, manufacturers, builders, occupiers, and maintenance engineers about how they can act positively on buildings and their systems to improve occupant comfort, health, and well-being – and also strengthen their businesses in the process.

BESA’s IAQ Group chair Nathan Wood said:

Everyone in building engineering services should have a basic grounding in air quality solutions and be able to explain how poor IAQ affects human health and well-being and the costs of not addressing it properly. There is huge demand for this kind of introductory training from right across society because everyone is impacted…The more people know and understand why and how IAQ affects health and comfort, the greater will be the pressure on government to legislate properly and in line with the latest worldwide data.

For more information and to register for BESA’s Basic Awareness training for IAQ visit the BESA Academy website.