The Right to Clean Air: Moving the Dial on Air Quality

Air pollution can have serious medical consequences for those living in locations with a poor rating. From triggering respiratory conditions to long-term impacts such as dementia¹, it is clear why a variety of efforts are being made to help clean the atmosphere. With this in mind, David Millward, Group Product Manager from Elta Group, delves into the issues surrounding the right to clean air and why it shouldn’t stop there.

The link between air pollution and both short and long-term medical illnesses has gained significant awareness in recent years with multiple studies being conducted to measure the connection. As a result, a variety of efforts have been made to decrease the amount of dust, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide released into the atmosphere, specifically in city centres and urban locations.

To curb the impact on residents, multiple cities across the UK have implemented clean air  zones where vehicles that exceed the emissions standards must pay a fee to drive in the area. Meanwhile, updates to Part F of the Building Regulations have come into force for dwellings and other buildings. Through this, it is now a requirement that ventilation systems must extract air pollutants in kitchens and bathrooms alongside minimising the entry of pollution. These are positive steps in the right direction however we have not yet reached out target.

The UK is still 1.8 times the average PM2.5 concentration according to the World Health Organisation annual air quality guideline value². Knowing this, we must continue the charge to reduce air pollution levels, and building service engineers have a key role to play.

Creating Clean Air

Indoor and outdoor air quality can be tackled with different ways. The use of clean air zones helps reduce the amount of pollution emitted outdoors, but what can be done to improve the quality indoors? Good air within homes and businesses depends on several factors including air movement and purification. These measures help improve the levels of pollution by introducing circulation and removing particle matter and airborne toxins that may impact an individual’s health. Overall, ventilation systems are required to implement these measures and ensure that not only indoor pollution levels stay low, but also prevent other hazards such as damp and mould growth.

Retrofitting, upgrading, or installing a ventilation system requires skilled professionals that not only understand building regulations, but also know how to assemble and install a vital piece of equipment.

Making Clean Air a Reality

The efforts to help make air cleaner for all is still ongoing and it is imperative buildings both new and old have correctly specified and installed ventilation systems.

That said, space can be an issue during the construction or retrofit of an inner-city building. Even if specified correctly, ventilation systems are typically delivered to site unassembled, stored for weeks if not months, and then assembled once the build stage allows. In practice, this can cause issues such as damp and mould to damage the fan and ancillaries, parts going missing, or the system being assembled incorrectly. It is due to this that a lot of contractors are turning to offsite methods of designing and building components such as ventilation systems, and then delivering it to site when needed.

Here is where building services engineers can turn to our Prefabricated Solutions to ensure they get the right solution for their needs. Through Elta’s Prefabricated Solutions, contractors have access to over 150,000 customisations of fans and ancillaries, with the systems being as small as 250mm, all the way up to 2m in diameter.

A New Era of Air Movement and Quality

On top of making great strides in prefabricated solutions, we are making significant efforts to help create a new era. Under the new strapline, ‘Air Movement, Air Quality’, we have undergone a major rebrand during our 50-year anniversary, bringing together sister companies Fantech Ventilation in Ireland and Duct Products in Northern Ireland, alongside Elta Fans, and rebranding to Elta. Through these changes, building service engineers and tradespeople will have access to a complete portfolio of fans and ancillaries to ensure they have the right system no matter the project. Alongside this, our team of experts are on hand to ensure regulations are met and the best products are chosen.

Cleaner air is well within our grasp and something that we can achieve using the right solutions. The benefits of removing pollution are too significant to ignore so by optimising ventilation systems, we can make it a reality.