Window with pollution symbols

Breathe easy – engineering air quality solutions

21 October 2016, 9:00–13:00

Birmingham City University

Working with the IET and CIBSE, we hosted an event focused on air quality. Pollution and poor air quality, particularly in urban areas, is an increasing concern for local authorities, health and public services, and the public alike.

Chaired by Paddy Conaghan, CIBSE Vice-President, this event highlights the problems and practical built environment, engineering and policy solutions required to address UK air quality challenges. The emphasis is on practical advice, recent case studies, and signposting to information resources and solutions, and will bring together people from across sectors to encourage inter-disciplinary exchange.

Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution

Prof Patrick Saunders, Faculty of Public Health

Every breath we take, published in February 2016, is the first rigorous analysis of the life-course effects of air pollution from pre-conception and the baby’s first weeks in the womb through to old age. Air pollutants damage fundamental biological systems with emerging evidence of adverse effects on growth, intelligence, brain development, and coordination. These impacts will last far into the future with serious implications for individuals, populations and wider society. The report details a range of recommendations and interventions underpinned by evidence, effectiveness and equity. These reflect the need to act decisively, imaginatively and most importantly, now.

BUCCANEER: Birmingham Urban Climate Change Adaptation with Neighbourhood Estimates of Environmental Risk

Prof John Thornes, University of Birmingham

The talk will discuss the need for an Urban Heat Island model such as BUCCANEER to check that planning applications are climate ready. Urban areas can also lead to high levels of air pollution and there is an urgent need to get commuters out of their cars to walk, cycle and use public transport more. We have to guard against unintended consequences such as high levels of air pollution linked to buses, taxis and trains.

Healthy indoor environments: evidence, solutions and gaps

Dr Marcella Ucci, UCL

Dr Ucci will discuss the importance of indoor air quality for healthy indoor environments, within the context of indoor environmental quality, and the need for integrated design. Examples will be given regarding the control of moisture-related allergens and the importance of source control. She will also introduce the work of the UK Indoor Environments Groups and a new Masters degree in health, Wellbeing and Sustainable Buildings.

Interdependencies between housing, energy and wellbeing

Clive Shrubsole, UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering

Clive will discuss the importance of integrated policy thinking for the indoor environment, and how disparate policies in different domains can impact indoor air quality and health. Using the example of infrastructure interdependencies between housing and energy provision in London and Milton Keynes he shows that ‘win-win’ situations can occur and that good IAQ in homes can be realised whilst achieving reductions in end use energy demand in pursuit of climate change goals. However, the price for getting it wrong is a trade-off between occupant health and emissions reduction, with occupant health being the loser.

Building regulations and standards related to air quality

Dr Julie Godefroy, Sustainability consultant

This talk will give an introduction to regulations and standards on air quality. It will provide an overview of World Health Organization guidelines, EU directives, and UK objectives, followed by more focus on building design applications including Building Regulations, best practice guidance (e.g. CIBSE), and voluntary certification schemes such as BREEAM and WELL.

Homes

Engineering solutions for air quality in homes

Dr Andy Dengel, BRE Indoor Air Quality team

The presentation will cover the work BRE has undertaken regarding a range of products and systems designed to improve indoor air quality. This will include development of the type of test protocols required to demonstrate efficacy of innovative solutions of these types.

Safe as houses? Ventilation and health in dwellings

Dr Benjamin Jones, University of Nottingham

In the UK, we spend over 70% of our time inside our own homes where we are exposed to a range of airborne pollutants. 60-95% of our total lifetime exposure is in our houses, and 30% of it occurs during sleep. There is a growing awareness of their effects on health and so dwelling air quality is a cause for concern. However, high concentrations of pollutants in a house do not necessarily indicate a health hazard. Therefore, key pollutants must be identified and methods of controlling and reducing exposure using different strategies must be applied. But what are these pollutants, and what are these strategies? This talks asks, are our houses really are as “safe as houses”?

Hospitals

Indoor air quality in hospitals

Dr Tim Lee, Lecturer, Birmingham City University

Tim Lee presented on behalf of Dr Ghasson Shabha.

The spread of infectious disease and antimicrobial filters

Dr Lena Circic, UCL

An exploration of how infectious diseases can spread in the built environment and how engineering solutions can be used to reduce numbers of pathogens.

Transport

Emissions from road transport: monitoring mitigation actions

Dr Teresa Raventos, University of Leicester

The influence of mobility to air pollution or vice versa is a key area of research which can inform the local authorities and decision makers. This talk will explain a study case focused at the North West Leicester, where a policy scheme for improvement of traffic flow and air quality led by Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council was implemented. The objective was to monitor the air pollution by deploying a number of low cost small sensors and record long period NOx, CO and O3 concentrations to assess the impact of transport policy interventions on the air pollution and at the key points of traffic emissions.

Air pollution: home or away?

Professor John Thornes, University of Birmingham

The air pollution episodes of March and April 2014 will be examined using Ambulance Data for London to show how different health effects can result – depending on where the air pollution comes from. Is much of it imported (away) or locally generated (home)?

Elliot et al. (2016) Monitoring the effect of air pollution episodes on health care consultations and ambulance call-outs in England during March/April 2014: A retrospective observational analysis. Environmental Pollution, 214: 903–911, DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.04.026

Green Infrastructure

Green Infrastructure as a built environment air quality service

Prof John Dover, Staffordshire University

The intelligent use of vegetation can improve air quality outdoors and indoors. The talk will discuss some of the challenges facing society and building owners/users and identify how vegetation can be used to contribute to overcoming them.

Workshop outputs

Delegate pitches – seeking collaborators to take ideas & projects further (pdf, 1.8 MB)

Horizon scanning workshop: record of discussions on solutions and barriers to improving air quality (pdf, 1.4 MB)

IET.TV Breathe Easy – engineering air quality solutions video of the event

Read Sara Kassam's Storify from the event

Our partners

CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) Resilient Cities Group provides leadership and knowledge on the adaptability, sustainability and resilience of cities. CIBSE and its members are the primary source of professional guidance for the building services sector on the design and installation of energy efficient building services systems.

CIBSE Resilient Cities logo

The IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology) is one of the world’s largest and most multidisciplinary engineering institutions, reflecting the diverse nature of engineering. The IET works to inspire, inform and influence their members, engineers and technicians.

The IET logo Patrick Saunders

Prof Patrick Saunders

Board member, Faculty of Public Health

Patrick has held service, research, teaching and management posts in local government and NHS bodies, the Health Protection Agency, and several Universities. He has long experience of working with elected members and executive officers and the NHS. His research interest is in the public health impact, especially on reproductive health, of exposure to low levels of chemicals. Patrick has had a career long commitment to developing the evidence base underpinning public health practice and addressing environmental and public health inequalities.

Emeritus Prof John Thornes

University of Birmingham

Professor Thornes' main research interest is the impact of weather and climate on transport. He was the lead author for the first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) on Transport and has published more than 100 papers on transport related themes. One of his current projects is to examine the impact of air pollution on ambulance response times and health impacts. He is working with the London Ambulance Service to both predict environmental impacts and reduce their carbon footprint.

Marcella Uci

Dr Marcella Ucci

Senior lecturer, University College London

Marcella's research focuses on the interactions and tensions between sustainable building design/operation and the needs of occupants in terms of comfort, health and wellbeing. Her expertise includes building monitoring and modelling, health impact of buildings (especially biological such as dust mites), application of epidemiological methods to built environment studies, and operational aspect of buildings - especially occupant behaviour. Marcella is Chair of the UK Indoor Environments Group (UKIEG) – a multidisciplinary network for UK activity concerned with indoor environments, health and well-being.

Clive Shrubsole

Clive Shrubsole

Research associate, University College London

Clive's research is wide ranging and includes multiple socio-technical methodologies. His current focus is to investigate the adaptation of the built environment to a warming climate using energy efficient retrofit technologies and ventilation strategies. Utilising both monitoring and complex micro-environmental modelling approaches, he investigates changes in the indoor environment in the context of policy objectives to create a low-carbon building stock; currently the formation, movement and impact of airborne pollutants and health.

Dr Julie Godefroy

Sustainability consultant, part-time consultant at Delos

Julie is chartered engineer with a PhD in low-carbon technologies. She has been involved in a variety of projects from early master-planning stages through to post-occupancy evaluation, as well as policy work. She has a particular interest in housing and heritage buildings. Julie is part of the advisory group for UCL’s MSc “Health, Wellbeing and Sustainable Buildings” and the National Trust’s Historic Environment Group and Design Advice Forum.

Dr Andy Dengel

Dr Andy Dengel

Director, BRE Environment

Andy joined BRE in 2006, he leading the IAQ team, along with air pollution, lighting and HVAC engineering. Andy leads BRE’s research and consultancy activities on the physical monitoring of indoor environments. He recently led a major project developing and implementing testing protocols in hospitals, care homes, social housing, offices and schools.

Prof Ben Jones

Dr Benjamin Jones

Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham

Benjamin is an Assistant Professor, affiliated to the Department of Architecture and Built Environment and a member of the Environment People and Design research group. His work focuses on measurement, analytical, and modelling approaches to the indoor environment in order to create a low-carbon and healthy building stock. Benjamin is currently investigating the infiltration of air into UK housing stock, the energy required to heat that air, and examining fine particles emitted during home cooking and methods of reducing exposure to them.

Dr Ghasson Shabha

Dr Ghasson Shabha

Senior Lecturer, Birmingham School of Engineering and the Built Environment

Ghasson is an architect and technologist, and has advised housing associations, BIFM, CIBSE and BRE. His research interests focus on facilities management and CAFM applications in property and building use. Ghasson is currently involved in innovative research into assessing the risk of air-borne infection in critical healthcare facilities, incorporating wireless sensors embedded into mechanical ventilation, air conditioning systems transmitting real-time data to a remote web server.

Lena Ciric

Dr Lena Ciric

Lecturer at University College London

Lena's research focuses on the profiling of microbial communities in various environments, and bacterial antibiotic resistance mechanisms and their modes of transfer among different communities. Lena is interested in the discovery of novel antimicrobial strategies. She manages the Healthy Infrastructure Research Group at UCL CEGE, investigating engineering solutions that reduce the spread of infectious disease and improve environmental health.

Teresa Raventos

Dr Teresa Raventos

University of Leicester

Teresa has over 10 years of experience in national and international projects on monitoring, modelling and assessing emissions in urban, suburban and rural areas in the United Kingdom and Europe; with the aim of studying trans-boundary transport of pollutants. More recently, she worked as scientific manager and air quality specialist for THE ISSUE project. Her interests are the study of concentrations and formation processes of gas phase pollutants in the urban and sub-urban environments and research on source of emissions, abatement measures and their impact to the concentrations at a local level by using small and low cost sensors.

Prof John Dover

Prof John Dover

Green Wall Centre, Staffordshire University

John is an ecologist, initially working as an agro-ecologist on hedgerow, field margin, and extensive grassland ecology and management. He subsequently developed an interest in urban ecology and green infrastructure. John has a particular interest in the ecology of green/living walls and their wider environmental value including their ability to reduce air pollution.