The majority of us spend our time indoors. How can we be sure that the air we breathe in is as safe as it can be? The new law may assist.
Check any weather report that is available that covers your area In addition to humidity and temperature amounts, it will also be able to see the most current air quality in outdoor. But what happens when you go into the school, office or a medical facility or even a supermarket? How do you determine the building’s air quality?
The quality of the air we breathe directly impacts our health and well-being. The quality of air outside is regulated and monitored through the Federal government, but that’s not the case inside, where most American spends around 90 percent on average.
Specialists of experts from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security are asking states to develop laws that will improve the quality of indoor air in public spaces, and giving them the tools for doing so via the Model State Indoor Air Quality Act.
What is polluting our indoor air?
A variety of infectious diseases, such as COVID influenza, COVID, RSV, and measles, are transmitted through airborne means, which is more readily in indoor settings.
“But there are a lot of other things that are in the air too, that are really unhealthy for you,” says Gigi Gronvall PhD as the associate professor for Environmental Health and Engineering and a senior researcher in the Center for Health Security.
The indoor air quality could be affected by a wide range of sources, such as mold and carbon dioxide, radon particulate matter, the chemicals found that are found in cleaners, the offgassing of furniture and building materials and even pollution from outdoor air. In reality, the amount of pollutants inside is between two and five times higher than outside.
What we breathe may benefit or hurt us
The epidemic has highlighted the significance of ventilated fresh air in keeping COVID from spreading. COVID and research suggests that improving ventilation and air filtration can as well enhance employee performance and productivity and increase the test scores of teachers and their retention.
Exposure to repeated exposure to low-quality indoor air (IAQ) On the contrary is proven to be:
This can lead to respiratory ailments, Heart disease, respiratory diseases, and cancer.
Students and teachers are absent more often and disrupt the process of learning and performance.
“It’s not something we should be ignoring,” says Gronvall. “If you breathe poor air, you’re not going to do as well, you’re not going to think as well.”
What can states do?
The Model State Indoor Air Quality Act (MSIAQA) was drafted through the Center for Health Security in collaboration with experts in the field of law. It establishes a legal basis for localities and states to adopt legislation that will lead to improved IAQ for public buildings. It does this by:
Establishing state advisory councils for setting standards that meet state requirements.
Insisting that the quality of indoor air be assessed and the results made public.
Establishing a system that allows individuals to submit health concerns possibly caused by bad air quality and for the government to look into these reports and issue needed fixes.
It offers best practices on the way that local and state authorities can:
Make sure that the law is implemented.
Authorities should test IAQ and issue reports on buildings, similar to the health inspections for restaurants.
Inform the public about IAQ as well as the advantages of having clean air.
Let experts determine the level of indoor pollution are acceptable and what levels are not.
Incentivize building owners to keep healthy air quality within their buildings.
Why do we require uniform regulation
Although federal law regulates air pollution in outdoor areas, “there is little federal legal support to protect peoples’ health through improved IAQ or to incentivize IAQ improvements,” says the preface to the law. In the end, IAQ measures implemented at the tribal, state and local levels aren’t complete or uniform. “It’s really a patchwork,” Gronvall says. Gronvall points out that certain policies only address certain pollutants, such as radon and secondary smoke, or just certain areas, like schools. The MSIAQA is, as she explains, “offers a way to regulate more than just one thing or more than one environment.”
“Everyone deserves healthy indoor air,” says Paula Olsiewski, PhD who is a contributing researcher of the Center for Health Security and co-lead of the center’s IAQ group. “This model act gives states the tools to ensure that the air in public buildings is safe for people to breathe, whether the most urgent concern is airborne diseases, wildfire smoke, or asthma.”
