Air Quality Matters

Simon Jones
  • 4.2 (5)
  • Science
  • Updated Weekly

Air Quality Matters inside our buildings and out.This Podcast is about Indoor Air Quality, Outdoor Air Quality, Ventilation, and Health in our homes, workplaces, and education settings.And we already have many of the tools we need to make a difference.The conversations we have and how we share this knowledge is the key to our success.We speak with the leaders at the heart of this sector about them and their work, innovation and where this is all going.Air quality is the single most significant environmental risk we face to our health and wellbeing, and its impacts on us, our friends, our families, and society are profound.From housing to the workplace, education to healthcare, the quality of the air we breathe matters. Air Quality Matters

  1. Beyond Grants and Targets: The Human Side of Retrofitting 500,000 Irish Homes

    4h ago

    Beyond Grants and Targets: The Human Side of Retrofitting 500,000 Irish Homes

    This week, we sit down with Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit, and Brian McIntyre, Program Manager for High Performance Building Technologies at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about decarbonising the built environment: Key Topics Discussed: The Energy Security Reality: You can't control the cost of energy, but you can control how much energy your building needs. Ireland imports nearly all its fossil fuels, leaving households exposed to volatile global markets. The recent energy crisis has created a monthly reminder in every electricity and heating bill that decoupling from energy dependence isn't just environmental—it's economic survival. Retrofit isn't rocket science. It's far harder. It's mass customisation at a national scale. Always On Schemes and Multi Annual Funding: SEAI moved away from opening and closing grant windows, creating always on schemes with clear, commoditised grant amounts. No more guessing. No more waiting. Contractors know exactly what funding is available, homeowners know exactly what they'll receive, and the carbon tax was ring fenced to provide multi annual certainty out to 2030. This allowed industry to invest in skills, equipment, and capacity without the boom and bust cycles that plagued previous decades. The Skills and Labour Challenge: Ireland needs an estimated 50,000 additional skilled trades to deliver retrofit at scale. New build offers straightforward, repetitive work on identical house types. Retrofit is mass customisation—every home is different, every household has unique needs, and crossing the threshold into someone's home requires soft skills, customer service, and technical adaptability. Retrofit is a local career. It's nationwide work. It's a legacy you leave in your own community. GUESTS: Ciaran Byrne Director of National Retrofit, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ciaran-byrne-c-dir-1024682a/ Brian McIntyre Program Manager, High Performance Building Technologies, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-mcintyre-b6474838/ SEAI https://www.seai.ie/ The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) S&P UK (https://www.solerpalau.com/en-uk/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) - Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) - iE Electronics (https://www.eielectronics.ie/) and iAir Group (https://iair-group.com/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: Meeting SEAI and Ireland's Decarbonisation Mission 00:02:22 Energy Security and the Controllables: Why Fabric First Still Matters 00:08:40 SEAI's Role: From Energy Agency to National Retrofit Delivery Body 00:11:32 The Game-Changing Reforms: Always-On Schemes and Commoditized Grants 00:22:03 Demand Generation: From Ukraine War to Energy Bills as Monthly Reminders 00:24:49 Going Mainstream: When Retrofit Becomes Common Knowledge 00:30:54 Beyond Energy Savings: The Comfort, Health, and Well-Being Case 00:38:38 Affordability and the Hidden Energy Poor: Who Gets Left Behind 00:48:01 The Skills and Labour Challenge: Competing with New Build 00:57:34 Quality Control and Avoiding the Horror Stories 00:50:02 The Data Revolution: From Static BER to Real-Time Building Performance 01:22:30 The Next Five Years: Digital Journeys, High-Temperature Heat Pumps, and AI 01:37:13 Closing Thoughts: Making Retrofit as Easy as Ordering from Amazon

    1h 38m
  2. From Reactive to Proactive: Designing Air Quality Sensors That Residents Actually Want - #OT46

    4d ago

    From Reactive to Proactive: Designing Air Quality Sensors That Residents Actually Want - #OT46

    This week, we dive into a fascinating paper from the Journal of Sustainable Futures titled Co-creating Sustainable Innovations in Irish Social Housing Through Participatory Research, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about indoor air quality intervention: What if the single biggest barrier to deploying environmental sensors in homes isn't the technology—but the complete absence of trust, agency, and meaningful participation from the people whose living rooms we're trying to monitor? In Ireland, social housing providers act as landlords responsible for repair, maintenance, and dealing with problems like dampness and mould. But their strategy is almost entirely reactive—waiting for residents to call and report a problem. By the time that call is made, the resident has likely already been exposed to harmful levels of damp and mould for a prolonged period, and the building's infrastructure may already be compromised. The SHINE project (Sustainable Homes Integrating Non-Intrusive Environmental Sensors) aimed to transition from reactive maintenance to proactive monitoring using low cost environmental sensors. But the researchers knew they couldn't just drop technology into people's living rooms without asking them first. Key Topics Discussed: The Historical Baggage Problem: Top down regeneration and sustainability projects in Ireland have a shaky track record. Dolphin House residents spent over a decade fighting for regeneration due to horrific living conditions and severe mould. Despite 25 million allocated in 2016, years later only a fraction has been retrofitted. When you have that kind of historical baggage, trust is understandably low. The Fear of Surveillance and Data Exploitation: When you tell someone you're putting a sensor in their home, their mind immediately jumps to surveillance. Residents worried landlords were spying on them, recording audio and video, that data would be weaponised to evict them. What if environmental data showing a resident lived in a damp, mouldy home found its way to a health insurance provider? It could literally affect their ability to get coverage for lung conditions. The Challenge of Meaningful Participation: Consultations can easily turn into forums for venting. Stakeholders advised that the project had to clearly answer the resident's fundamental question: what's in it for us? If sensors are just seen as a tool for the landlord to save money on maintenance, residents will push back. The narrative has to focus on how sensors save the resident's time, reduce their bills, and protect their health. The Blame Narrative Problem: For years, the narrative around mould has been to blame the resident—telling them they just aren't opening their windows enough or they're drying too many clothes indoors. Approaching residents with a patronising or blaming tone will cause them to instantly refuse participation. Co-creating sustainable innovations in Irish social housing through participatory research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2026.101740 The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: The One Take Format and the Participatory Research Paper 00:01:11 The Reactive Maintenance Problem: When Waiting Means Harm 00:01:54 The SHINE Project: Shifting from Reactive to Proactive Monitoring 00:02:35 The Historical Baggage: Why Top-Down Projects Fail in Ireland 00:03:49 The Participatory Research Approach: 28 Stakeholder Voices 00:04:27 Barrier One: The Fear of Surveillance and Data Exploitation 00:05:40 Barrier Two: The Challenge of Meaningful Participation 00:06:32 Barrier Three: Specific Needs of Vulnerable Populations 00:07:25 The Engineering Response: Data Minimization and Edge Computing 00:08:10 Flipping the Power Dynamic: User Control and Inert Design 00:09:16 The Real Barrier: Participation by Design, Not Technology 00:10:09 Closing Thoughts: Listening First, Building Better

    11 min
  3. Sick Buildings to Smart Sensors: How IAQ Evolved Over Two Decades - Indoor Air 2026 Preview

    Jun 1

    Sick Buildings to Smart Sensors: How IAQ Evolved Over Two Decades - Indoor Air 2026 Preview

    This week, we sit down with Kwok Wai THam, President of Indoor Air 2026 with Vice Presidents, Yvonne Soh, and Chandra Sekhar, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about the evolution of indoor air quality: What if the single most important shift in the last two decades isn't just our deeper understanding of the science—but our recognition that clean indoor air is now a fundamental human right, requiring resilience, technology, and human centric design to deliver? Key Topics Discussed: From Reactive to Proactive: In 2003, the focus was on sick building syndrome and reactive maintenance. In 2026, the conversation has shifted to proactive biosurveillance, real-time sensor networks, and predictive analytics powered by artificial intelligence. Buildings are no longer passive containers. They are intelligent systems capable of detecting, responding to, and mitigating indoor air quality problems before occupants even notice. The Complexity Problem: Indoor environments are more complex than ever. New synthetic materials off-gas volatile organic compounds. Occupancy densities have increased. External pollution from wildfires, traffic, and industrial sources infiltrates buildings faster than ventilation systems can respond. And climate change is compounding thermal discomfort, humidity challenges, and energy demands. Science has advanced, but so have the problems. Human Centric Design and Adaptive Comfort: Singapore has pioneered mixed-mode ventilation strategies that work with the weather rather than against it. When outdoor conditions are acceptable, buildings switch to natural ventilation. When temperatures rise, air conditioning activates. This approach reduces energy consumption while maintaining thermal comfort. But it requires rethinking occupant expectations, building controls, and system resilience during transient conditions. Fifteen Sub Themes and a Global Conversation: Indoor Air 2026 features fifteen technical sub themes covering everything from source control and materials selection to airborne infectious disease, smart building technology, and policy development. The conference deliberately avoids regional segmentation. Every theme is global. Every challenge is universal. The goal is cross learning—taking lessons from Latin America, Europe, Asia, and North America and applying them everywhere. GUESTS: Prof. Tham Kwok Wai President, Indoor Air 2026 | National University of Singapore https://www.linkedin.com/in/tham-kwok-wai-0623aa44/ Engr. Yvonne Soh Vice President, Indoor Air 2026 | CEO, Singapore Green Building Council https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonne-soh-0a78934/ Prof. Chandra Sekhar Vice President, Indoor Air 2026 | National University of Singapore https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandra-sekhar/ Indoor Air 2026 https://www.indoorair2026.org/ The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: Welcome to Indoor Air 2026 Preview 00:02:46 Twenty Years of Progress: Reflecting on Indoor Air Since 2003 00:06:48 The Pandemic Parallel: SARS-CoV-1 Then, COVID-19 Now 00:10:22 From Sick Buildings to Human-Centered Design: The Green Building Evolution 00:13:17 The Conference Theme: Enhancing Well-Being Through Resilience and Understanding 00:15:38 Fifteen Sub-Themes: From Source Control to Clean Air Equivalence 00:19:12 The Complexity Challenge: More Knowledge, More Problems 00:22:01 Technology as Enabler: Sensors, Data, and Artificial Intelligence 00:27:10 Singapore as Living Laboratory: Climate, Walkability, and Mixed-Mode Design 00:35:26 The Conference Experience: Venue, Schedule, and Parallel Sessions 00:49:50 Keynote Speakers: From Science to Policy and Translational Impact 00:49:17 Special Events: Global Clean Air Pledge and Medical-Engineering Collaboration 01:00:25 Beyond the Conference Rooms: Technical Tours and Indoors Go Out 01:03:26 Investing in the Future: Summer School and Career Pathways 01:04:39 The Next Generation: Young Professionals and Sustainability Impact 01:09:33 Global Gathering: 900 Delegates from Every Continent

    1h 11m
  4. Wet Towels, Cold Rooms: The Hidden Physics of Indoor Laundry Drying - #OT45

    May 28

    Wet Towels, Cold Rooms: The Hidden Physics of Indoor Laundry Drying - #OT45

    This week, we dive into a fascinating full scale experimental study published in the Journal of Indoor Environments titled Indoor Laundry Drying: Full Scale Determination of Water Emissions Rates and Impact on Thermal Comfort, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about energy efficiency advice: What if the single most common energy saving recommendation—drying clothes indoors instead of using a tumble dryer—is actually forcing us to turn up the heating and creating serious indoor air quality problems we've never properly quantified? Across Europe, particularly during winter months, over 60% of laundries are dried indoors in countries like Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Finland. In France alone, tumble dryers account for 20% of average annual household electricity consumption. The advice is clear: save energy, ditch the dryer, hang your clothes on a rack. But while we know this practice coincides with dust mite growth and high concentrations of airborne mould spores due to rising moisture, the actual kinetics—how much water is emitted, exactly when, and how it physically changes the room's environment—has never been properly quantified in a controlled, full scale way. Until now. Key Topics Discussed: The Cotton Culprit: A typical four kilogram load of dry cotton towels will hold about two litres of water after a standard 40 degree wash. Spinning faster than 1,000 RPM doesn't extract much more water. Cotton is the real moisture problem when it comes to indoor drying. Three Phases of Drying: By constantly weighing the drying rack and monitoring room humidity in a controlled 40 cubic metre experimental chamber, researchers discovered water emission isn't a slow, steady trickle. It happens in three distinct phases: the initial burst (first two hours, exceeding 100 grams per hour, peaking at 360 grams per hour), the steady state (10 to 25 hours, stabilizing around 50 grams per hour as the room becomes humid), and the exhaustion phase (beyond 30 hours, gradually tailing off). The Temperature Drop Problem: Evaporating water is endothermic—it literally sucks heat out of surrounding air. As laundry dried, room temperature dropped significantly, recording drops between half a degree and 3.8 degrees Celsius. If your room starts off quite dry, the initial humidity gradient is higher, water evaporates faster, and the temperature drop is even sharper. The Thermal Comfort Failure: When researchers mapped these temperature and humidity changes onto standard thermal comfort charts like ASHRAE 55, the results were clear: passive indoor laundry drying actively drags room conditions right out of acceptable comfort zones. Even wearing thicker winter clothes only partially mitigates the discomfort. The Heating Paradox: If we're told to avoid tumble dryers to save energy, but doing so drops the temperature of our living spaces by almost four degrees, what do we inevitably do? We turn up the central heating. The energy saving advice creates a new energy consumption problem. Mitigation Strategies: We need to be strategic about where we dry clothes. Positioning drying racks in bathrooms close to air extraction points can avoid spreading moisture and physically cooling down living and sleeping spaces. The first hour or two of clothes drying is particularly critical for moisture emission. Indoor laundry drying: Full-scale determination of water emission rate and impact on thermal comfort https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100089 The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: The One Take Format and the Mundane Routine of Laundry 00:00:58 The Energy Paradox: Why We're Told to Ditch the Tumble Dryer 00:02:21 The Cotton Culprit: How Much Water Are We Really Releasing? 00:03:03 The Three Phases of Drying: From Burst to Exhaustion 00:04:04 The Endothermic Effect: Why Drying Clothes Literally Cools Your Room 00:04:40 The Thermal Comfort Crisis: When Laundry Drags You Out of the Comfort Zone 00:05:04 The Heating Trap: Trading Tumble Dryer Energy for Central Heating 00:05:26 The Strategic Solution: Building Physics Meets Laundry Day 00:06:01 Closing Thoughts: Treating Mundane Tasks with Building Physics Respect

    7 min
  5. Why the Future of Healthy Buildings Is About Meeting People Where They Are - Rachel Hodgdon 118

    May 25

    Why the Future of Healthy Buildings Is About Meeting People Where They Are - Rachel Hodgdon 118

    This week, we sit down with Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about healthy buildings: What if the single biggest barrier to transforming the built environment isn't our lack of knowledge about indoor environmental quality—but our inability to communicate complexity in ways that inspire action rather than paralysis? Key Topics Discussed: - Meeting People Where They Are: How do you communicate the holistic vision of indoor environmental quality without overwhelming stakeholders? Rachel explains why IWBI always starts with what matters most to the person across the table. If you're talking to a CEO, lead with recruitment, retention, and productivity. If you're talking to a facilities manager, talk about deferred maintenance and occupant satisfaction. - Incremental Progress Over Perfection: Unlike many certifications that reward only finished projects, WELL is designed to celebrate incremental progress. WELL at Scale has proven that clients don't move in straight lines. They might start with one landmark building, then progress toward equity ratings across portfolios, or spend a year focusing on just a few features. One point earned toward any designation now counts toward full certification. - Performance Testing Reveals the Invisible: WELL is proudly performance based. After a project is complete and occupied, third party testers measure air quality, water quality, thermal comfort, lighting, and sound. Buildings that fail must retest. Rachel shares stories of projects that discovered elevator shafts pumping unfiltered air into lobbies, printers off gassing VOCs, and contaminated soil beneath indoor plants. Without performance testing, these issues would never have been found. - Residential and Affordable Housing: WELL for Residential launched as a pilot expecting 3,000 enrollments. It received 30,000 straight out of the gate, including 22,000 military homes. Rachel highlights a groundbreaking partnership with Enterprise Community Partners, embedding WELL into the Enterprise Green Communities standard for affordable housing. This means WELL is now legislated in over 50 percent of US states for affordable housing, ensuring the people most in need benefit first, not last. GUEST: Rachel Hodgdon President and CEO, International WELL Building Institute https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelhodgdon/ IWBI https://www.wellcertified.com/ The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: Meeting Rachel Hodgdon and the IWBI Mission 00:02:50 The Complexity Challenge: Communicating Holistic Indoor Environmental Quality 00:03:53 One WELL: Simplifying Entry Points and Rewarding Incremental Progress 00:07:59 The Apple Approach: Building a Unified Ecosystem for Healthy Buildings 00:09:40 Evolution from Green Buildings: The Second Wave of Sustainability 00:12:29 Authority and Accessibility: Balancing Technical Rigor with Broad Appeal 00:21:37 Meeting People Where They Are: The Art of Advocacy and Communication 00:31:47 The Power of Experience: Case Studies and Exemplar Spaces 00:36:05 Beyond Headquarters: Reaching the Long Tail of the Built Environment 00:39:27 WELL at Scale and Existing Buildings: Flexibility for Portfolios 00:40:58 Military Housing and Affordable Housing: 30,000 Homes and Counting 00:55:56 The Australian Success Story: What's Happening Down Under 00:58:54 Navigating Headwinds: DEI, Sustainability, and the Great Rebrand 01:05:05 Performance Testing and Accountability: Making the Invisible Visible 01:23:23 The ROI of Healthy Buildings: Retention, Recruitment, and Productivity 01:20:48 Neurodiversity and Universal Design: Designing for the Extremes Benefits Everyone 01:42:45 The Medical Gap: Why Doctors Don't Ask About Your Home 01:47:15 The Future: Continuous Monitoring and the Next Ten Years 01:50:33 Closing Thoughts: Data is Knowledge, Knowledge is Power

    1h 52m
  6. The Blinking Light Problem: Why Handing Teachers CO2 Monitors Isn't Enough - #OT44

    May 21

    The Blinking Light Problem: Why Handing Teachers CO2 Monitors Isn't Enough - #OT44

    This week, we dive into a fascinating paper from Douglas Booker published in the journal Athermira titled Unstable Air: How COVID-19 Remade Knowing Air Quality in School Classrooms, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about indoor air quality intervention: What if the single most important lesson from the pandemic isn't that we need to measure air quality—but that we need to fundamentally rethink who is responsible for fixing it, and whether our solutions are creating entirely new problems? This paper offers a rare behind the scenes look at an applied indoor air quality research project that got completely hijacked and subsequently reshaped by the global pandemic. It examines how our understanding of what makes air good or bad is not just a scientific fact but something that shifts based on society, politics, and in this case, a novel virus. Key Topics Discussed: The Original Mission: Before COVID, researchers deployed sophisticated air quality monitors into 20 school classrooms across England and Wales to measure traditional pollutants—ultrafine particles, nitrogen dioxide, VOCs—things infiltrating from outside or off-gassing from furniture. The goal was straightforward: measure the bad stuff and see how effectively air cleaners could scrub it away. The Pandemic Pivot: When COVID hit, the entire narrative flipped. Suddenly the greatest source of indoor air pollution wasn't traffic or cleaning products—it was human breathing. We became the source of contamination. The project had to adapt, but hit a microscopic hurdle: how do you actually measure a virus in the air when your monitors just count particles without telling you what they are? The Carbon Dioxide Proxy: Unable to isolate viral particles, researchers pivoted to a reliable proxy: carbon dioxide. By watching CO2 levels rise and fall, they could measure how much air in the room had already been in someone else's lungs and calculate ventilation rates. Pre-COVID data showed classrooms regularly exceeded recommended limits. But graphs alone don't change behaviour. The Wells Riley Translation: To translate numbers into risk, researchers used the Wells Riley equation to calculate airborne infection probability. The results were powerful: in one scenario, low ventilation created an 80% probability of infection. Simply increasing airflow to 100 cubic metres per hour dropped that to 40%. Small ventilation improvements created massive risk reductions. The Milk Out of Your Tea Problem: In the rush to dilute the virus by opening windows, we might be trading one severe health risk for another. If your school sits on a busy urban road, opening windows drops CO2 and virus risk but floods classrooms with toxic traffic fumes. Running a portable air cleaner with windows wide open to a polluted street is like trying to take milk out of your tea. The Inequality of Personal Responsibility: By handing out CO2 monitors and telling teachers to manage windows, the government effectively individualised air quality. The message: here's a blinking light, fixing it is your responsibility. Unstable air: How COVID-19 remade knowing air quality in school classrooms https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378714580_Unstable_air_How_COVID-19_remade_knowing_air_quality_in_school_classrooms The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: The One Take Format and Unstable Air 00:01:27 The Outdoor Air Quality Paradox: Why We Ignored Indoor Spaces 00:02:30 The Original Mission: Measuring Classroom Pollutants in 2020 00:03:18 The Pandemic Pivot: When Humans Became the Pollution Source 00:03:58 The Measurement Problem: You Can't See a Virus in Particle Counts 00:04:33 The CO2 Proxy Solution: 150 Years of Measuring Bad Air 00:05:57 The Wells-Riley Equation: Translating Numbers Into Infection Risk 00:07:18 From Concern to Care: The Ethical Intervention That Worked 00:08:25 The Window Paradox: Trading Viral Risk for Toxic Fumes 00:09:35 The Inequality Problem: When Air Quality Becomes Personal Responsibility 00:10:23 The Critical Future: Building Better Pandemic Infrastructure

    12 min
  7. Beyond Particulates: How Gas Phase Filtration Protects Everything From Data Centers to Lungs 117

    May 18

    Beyond Particulates: How Gas Phase Filtration Protects Everything From Data Centers to Lungs 117

    This week, we sit down with Christopher Mueller, Global Director of the High Purity Segment at AAF International (American Air Filters), to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about indoor air quality: What if the single biggest gap in our approach to healthy buildings isn't particulate filtration—but our complete failure to address the invisible chemical soup we're breathing every single day? Chris brings over 40 years of deep expertise in environmental air quality and gas phase air filtration. With more than 200 peer reviewed papers, hundreds of seminars, and co authorship of major industry handbooks including the NAFSA Air Filtration Handbook and ASHRAE standards, Chris has testified at OSHA on indoor air quality standards and consulted with governments worldwide. He is the former chair of ASHRAE 145, which developed the first standard for assessing gas phase air filtration media performance, and remains a member of key technical committees shaping the future of air cleaning globally. Key Topics Discussed: The Fundamental Difference: Particulate filtration is catching. Gas phase filtration is reacting. Gases move by diffusion, from high to low concentration, and removing them requires adsorption—getting molecules out of the air and onto the surface of materials like activated carbon, alumina, or zeolites. Unlike particle filters, gas phase filters don't fill up. They run out. They lose effectiveness over time, and there's no pressure gauge to tell you when. Surface Area Is Everything: Most activated carbons have around 1100 square meters per gram of surface area. That's not the exterior of the pellet. That's the interior pore structure. Volatile organic compounds get inside, condense back into liquid form, and stay there. The physics of adsorption depend on molecular weight, concentration, residence time, and contact efficiency. You need the air to touch the adsorbent before it exits the filter. One Filter Won't Do It All: You can't use one type of gas phase media to remove everything. Basic activated carbon handles many organic compounds. Acid gases like sulfur dioxide require chemically treated carbon. Ammonia requires another type entirely. Think of it like particulate filtration: pre filter, intermediate filter, final filter. Same logic applies to chemicals. The Four Global Markets: Corrosion control accounts for 60 to 65 percent of the global gas phase filtration market, driven by electronics manufacturing, data centers, and industrial facilities where chemical contamination voids equipment warranties. Wastewater odor control is second. Indoor air quality in commercial buildings is third. Airborne molecular contamination in semiconductor manufacturing is fourth. The total global market is approximately $2 billion and growing at 5.5 percent annually. GUEST: Christopher Mueller Global Director, High Purity Segment, AAF International https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismullerconsulting/ AAF International https://www.aafintl.com/ The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: Meeting the Gas Phase Air Cleaning Guru 00:02:51 The Fundamental Difference: Particulate vs Gas Phase Filtration 00:09:29 The Science of Adsorption: How Gas Phase Filters Actually Work 00:17:10 The Swiss Cheese Approach: Multi-Stage Gas Phase Filtration 00:23:20 Form Factors and Physical Products: From Pleats to Packed Beds 00:28:00 Precision and Specificity: Can You Target Individual Chemicals? 00:34:20 The Four Markets: Where Gas Phase Filtration Is Applied Today 00:38:24 Corrosion Control: The Hidden Giant of Gas Phase Filtration 00:44:00 Indoor Air Quality and the IAQP Opportunity 00:48:38 The Commercial Reality: Why Gas Phase Is Still a Hard Sell 01:13:49 Materials and Sustainability: What Is Activated Carbon Made From? 01:24:13 The Path Forward: Education, Standards, and Market Evolution 01:36:35 Closing Thoughts: Making the Invisible Visible

    1h 37m
  8. The Wrong Corner: How Air Purifier Placement Can Increase Infection Risk OT43

    May 14

    The Wrong Corner: How Air Purifier Placement Can Increase Infection Risk OT43

    This week, we dive into a groundbreaking computational fluid dynamics study from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden that fundamentally challenges how we think about portable air cleaners in care homes: What if the single most important decision about air cleaning isn't which device you buy—but where you put it in the room? During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, care homes experienced devastating mortality rates among elderly residents. These environments are uniquely challenging—combining elements of healthcare facilities with residential living spaces, housing vulnerable populations who spend prolonged periods indoors with limited mobility and compromised immune systems. Portable air cleaners emerged as a promising, accessible solution. But does it actually matter where you place them? Can you just plug them in wherever the cable reaches and assume the job is done? And critically, will the airflow create cold drafts that make elderly residents so uncomfortable they simply switch the device off? Key Topics Discussed: The Care Home Challenge: Why care homes represent such a unique built environment challenge. Vulnerable populations with reduced mobility, chronic illnesses, compromised thermoregulation making them sensitive to drafts, and prolonged indoor exposure without control over their immediate environment. Any intervention has to work within these constraints. The 74% Variation Problem: Using computational fluid dynamics simulations, researchers tested the same portable air cleaner in nine different locations within a typical care home room. The result: placement alone created a 74% variation in infection risk. Same machine, same room, same people—completely different outcomes based purely on where the device sat. The Worst Case Scenario: In one placement configuration, positioning the air cleaner near the infected healthcare worker created a powerful airflow jet that actively transported exhaled virus particles directly into the breathing zone of the elderly patient. The infection risk skyrocketed to 85.9%. The air cleaner didn't just fail—it made things dramatically worse. The Best Case Scenario: Placing the air cleaner in the centre of the room created the lowest infection risk—75 to 86% reduction compared to no air cleaner—by forming an invisible air barrier between occupants. But it's completely impractical due to tripping hazards in environments with wheelchairs, walking frames, and elderly residents with limited mobility. The Thermal Comfort Win: Across all tested scenarios, draft rates remained below the 10% discomfort threshold. This is critical. There's no point achieving perfect air quality if the occupant is freezing cold and turns the device off. The study proves portable air cleaners can reduce infection risk without compromising thermal comfort—if used correctly. The Training Gap: The on demand, plug and play nature of portable air cleaners means frontline workers—nurses, cleaners, facility managers—play a critical role in their effectiveness. Without proper training and clear visual guidance showing safe placement zones, we risk unintended consequences. Procurement isn't enough. Education is essential. CFD study on performance of portable air cleaner on infection risk and draught rate in care homes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indenv.2026.100151 The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/ Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) The One Take Podcast in Partnership with SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast) If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: The One Take Format and This Week's CFD Study 00:01:03 The Care Home Crisis: Why COVID-19 Hit the Elderly So Hard 00:01:37 The Vulnerable Population: Mobility, Immunity, and Thermal Sensitivity 00:02:09 The Portable Air Cleaner Promise: Easy Solution or Placement Problem? 00:02:50 The CFD Simulation: Mapping Invisible Airflow and Virus Particles 00:03:43 The Good News: 75-86% Risk Reduction Without Creating Drafts 00:04:26 The Shocking Discovery: 74% Variation Based on Placement Alone 00:04:58 The Worst Case Scenario: When Air Cleaners Blow Virus Directly at Patients 00:05:45 The Best Placement Dilemma: Center of Room vs Practical Safety 00:06:47 The Real World Lesson: Education, Training, and Strategic Deployment

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About

Air Quality Matters inside our buildings and out.This Podcast is about Indoor Air Quality, Outdoor Air Quality, Ventilation, and Health in our homes, workplaces, and education settings.And we already have many of the tools we need to make a difference.The conversations we have and how we share this knowledge is the key to our success.We speak with the leaders at the heart of this sector about them and their work, innovation and where this is all going.Air quality is the single most significant environmental risk we face to our health and wellbeing, and its impacts on us, our friends, our families, and society are profound.From housing to the workplace, education to healthcare, the quality of the air we breathe matters. Air Quality Matters

Information

  • Creator
    Simon Jones
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    118
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Air Quality Matters
  • Show Website
    Air Quality Matters

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