Indoor Air Quality: Tackling the Challenges of the Invisible

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Indoor Air Quality: Tackling the Challenges of the Invisible THE VEOLIA INSTITUTE REVIEW FACTS REPORTS 2020 INDOOR AIR QUALITY: TACKLING THE CHALLENGES OF THE INVISIBLE In partnership with THE VEOLIA INSTITUTE REVIEW - FACTS REPORTS THINKING TOGETHER TO ILLUMINATE THE FUTURE THE VEOLIA INSTITUTE Designed as a platform for discussion and collective thinking, the Veolia Institute has been exploring the future at the crossroads between society and the environment since it was set up in 2001. Its mission is to think together to illuminate the future. Working with the global academic community, it facilitates multi-stakeholder analysis to explore emerging trends, particularly the environmental and societal challenges of the coming decades. It focuses on a wide range of issues related to the future of urban living as well as sustainable production and consumption (cities, urban services, environment, energy, health, agriculture, etc.). Over the years, the Veolia Institute has built up a high-level international network of academic and scientifi c experts, universities and research bodies, policymakers, NGOs and international organizations. The Institute pursues its mission through publications and conferences, as well as foresight working groups. Internationally recognized as a legitimate platform for exploring global issues, the Veolia Institute has official NGO observer status under the terms of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change. THE FORESIGHT COMMITTEE Drawing on the expertise and international reputation of its members, the Foresight Committee guides the work of the Veolia Institute and steers its development. The current members of the Foresight Committee are: Harvey Fineberg, President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and former President of the American Institute of Medicine; Pierre-Marc Johnson, international lawyer and former Premier of Quebec; Philippe Kourilsky, Honorary Director General of the Pasteur Institute; Mamphela Ramphele, former Managing Director of the World Bank; Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize-winning economist and Professor at Harvard University; and Nicholas Stern, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society. Review coordinated by THE REVIEW Cédric Baecher, Fanny Sohui, Leah Ball The Veolia Institute Review - FACTS Reports is a high-level international publication and Octave Masson, compiling diverse perspectives on topics at the crossroads between society and Nomadéis the environment. The review was launched in 2007 with the aim of sharing best practices from the fi eld, to help fi nd solutions to problems in the economy, development, healthcare, environment, agriculture and education, in both developing and developed countries. The interdisciplinary review is a vehicle for sharing the experiences and expertise of diff erent stakeholders (researchers, academic experts, policymakers, companies, NGOs, international organizations, etc.), with the aim of taking advantage of a diversity of perspectives on a given topic, by combining feedback on best practices from the fi eld and expert analysis. www.institut.veolia.org | THE VEOLIA INSTITUTE REVIEW - FACTS REPORTS CONTENTS Acting for healthy From public P.02 P.03 2. indoor air: from 3. perceptions measurement to policymaking: FOREWORD INTRODUCTION to remediation shining light on Philippe Kourilsky Nicolas Renard an invisible pollution Institut Pasteur Veolia Institute P. 36 Monitor, inform, understand, P. 04 innovate: the role of Airparif, P. 66 a non-profi t organization Paradigm change is needed to answer the indoor accredited by France’s Public perception of indoor air quality challenge Ministry of the Environment air quality in China, Belgium Cédric Baecher, to monitor air quality and France: the discovery of an invisible enemy Nicolas Dutreix Karine Léger Nomadéis Laurence Bedeau Airparif ELABE Indoor air quality: P. 40 P. 76 1. a multifaceted public health problem Architecture and the A multiparty and global challenges of indoor air quality eff ort to address air pollution Dietmar Feichtinger around the world Feichtinger Architectes P. 08 P. 24 Helena Molin Valdés Climate & Clean Air Coalition Managing indoor air quality Commuting by subway? (CCAC) to protect occupant health What you need to know P. 44 about air quality Docteur Fabien Squinazi From identifying to acting: The French Public Health Teresa Moreno how to guarantee good P. 82 Council (HCSP) Fulvio Amato quality air in buildings The French Observatory on Indoor Addressing indoor air Institute of Environmental pollution challenges through Air Quality (OQAI) Assessment and Water Research Sabine Fauquez (IDAEA) Frédéric Bouvier concrete public policies OFIS in South Korea P. 14 Dr. Dong Hwa Kang Energy transition for better P. 28 University of Seoul air quality: a public health What do we breathe inside P. 54 issue our cars? Characterization of Using plants and soil P. 86 Maria P. Neira the infi ltration of pollutants microbes to purify indoor World Health Organization and recommendations air: lessons from NASA and Who owns the air? (WHO) Amine Mehel Biosphere 2 experiments Emissions trading and ESTACA’Lab Bill C. Wolverton contemporary media art NASA & Wolverton Environmental Andrea Polli P. 18 Services University of New Mexico The Indoor Air Quality Mark Nelson Observatory (OQAI): Institute of Ecotechnics, Space Biosphere Ventures a unique project to (Biosphere 2) & Wastewater P. 90 understand air pollution Gardens International Pollution Pods: can art in our living spaces change people’s perception Corinne Mandin of climate change and Scientifi c and Technical Center P. 60 air pollution? for Building (CSTB) Artifi cial intelligence Michael Pinsky and indoor air quality: Laura Sommer better health with Norwegian University new technologies of Science and Technology Yann Boquillod AirVisual 01 THE VEOLIA INSTITUTE REVIEW - FACTS REPORTS FOREWORD Philippe Kourilsky - Honorary Director-General of the Institut Pasteur, Biologist, Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France, Member of the Veolia Institute Foresight Committee Back in 1975, I was a young We seek the causes: here, cars, diesel fuel, tire wear; academic who, thanks to a elsewhere, methane produced by cows and rice paddies. fortunate mix-up, ended up We need solutions for everywhere we live and work, accompanying a group of including cities, factories, aircraft, offices, fields, and eminent figures as a member garbage dumps. We also seek the culprits: all too quickly of the first delegation of we point fi ngers at manufacturers that know the harm French scientists to be they cause in search of making a profi t, at incompetent officially welcomed to or complacent politicians who close their eyes out of self- China. Mao Zedong still interest or lust for power, and so on. But this is something ruled over a country that that concerns every single one of us. We have to was just beginning to open become more conscious of the problems and challenges up. It was a fascinating trip associated with air quality. This is the subject of the fi rst during which, to illustrate the part of this issue. merits of traditional Chinese medicine, we were given a Part two looks at several areas of research and explores demonstration of surgery under acupuncture anesthesia. possible solutions. Science is advancing. The digital It was very impressive – a single needle was inserted era is here and massive data gathering using ever in the foot of a male patient who continued to speak more powerful sensors gives us the ability to analyze calmly as doctors sawed open his thorax. The window in problems that are increasingly complex, preventing the rudimentary operating room was opened between us from applying solutions that are at once simple and operations to let “pure” air in and let out microbes universal. Biology has a role, too, because plants and and miasma. microorganisms have considerable and as yet under- Reading this remarkable issue of the Veolia Institute’s explored capacities for regeneration. Architecture FACTS Reports, my memories of the event resurfaced too: suitably designed constructions are themselves because it illustrates the volatility of what we perceive to instruments for prevention and improvement. be “pure” air. This issue invites us to look afresh at the The last part of this issue looks at the future, discussing fundamentals of the quality of the air that we breathe, possible changes to standards and regulations, with a whether indoors or outdoors. focus on public health, and how to spread and harmonize On the surface, what could be simpler than air? What best practices at the global level. could be easier to share? More essential and vital? Yet Our future will be what we make of it. Air is one of the the truth is that air is varied and complex. Air is seen as most fundamental global commons. It is so ubiquitous so fundamentally elementary as to be of interest only that all too often we take it for granted. This issue invites to poets, not to chemists. This is far from the case. We us to pay much closer attention to it – and not just in a should speak of “airs” not of air. In this, air is the same as superfi cial way. This core component of our environment water. Air is made singular and diverse by its impurities: raises countless problems that demand we address them molecular pollutants, microparticles, microbes, etc. Their head-on, individually as well as collectively, in an ongoing sources are as numerous as their effects: polluted air process to improve our knowledge, understanding, dirties building façades, annoying
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