The Airora Indoor Air Quality OAF Standard

A step beyond NABERS, BREEAM, LEED, DGNB etc.

 

 

Indoor environment rating systems

With office workers spending an average of 7 hours a day indoors, the quality of the indoor environment can have a significant impact on employee health and productivity. A recent study found that people who work in well ventilated surroundings with below average levels of indoor pollutants and carbon dioxide have significantly higher cognitive-functioning scores than those in offices with typical levels^[1].

There are many systems for measuring the quality of the Indoor Environment (IE) of a building. The major international standards organisations offering such services include NABERS, BREEAM, LEED and DGNB. Some measure performance against benchmarks, some require continuous monitoring, some offer comparison to similar buildings, but all create an overall score to push progress along on a continuous improvement basis.

In terms of the indoor environment, they have several areas in common, such as thermal comfort, acoustic comfort, lighting, ventilation and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).

Indoor Air Quality

However, these standards diverge greatly on the question of Indoor Air Quality, and not just what matters, but also what can be measured, how important each parameter is (i.e. what weighting should it be given compared to others) and how often should measurements be made, will once a year do or only real time monitoring?

In addition, there is little or no agreement on what the target for a particular parameter might be, should it be absolute, should it be compared to outdoor air, should measurements be averaged, over hours, days or the whole year and so on.

The reason for the diverging, one might say discordant, approaches regarding measuring IAQ includes the lack of international agreement and standards, differing views on what is important or not, relative difficulty in data collection, and the scope for the building operators to manage the measurement outcomes.

Comparative parameters used to measure Indoor Air Quality

What is included and why

Relative Humidity – LEED states that relative humidity is included because high levels can potentially lead to higher levels of harmful bio aerosols such as viruses and bacteria.

Carbon Dioxide – Is generally included because it can be viewed as a surrogate measure for overcrowding and the consequent need for improved ventilation.

Nitrogen Dioxide – BREEAM includes nitrogen dioxide as it is a primary component of outdoor urban air pollution that can leak indoors.

Carbon Monoxide – NABERS includes carbon monoxide as a measure of the cleanliness and location of the building's air intake ducts.

PM₁₀ - NABERS includes PM₁₀ as they claim that this single measurement provides an indicator for even smaller particles that come from a range of indoor and outdoor sources.

PM_2.5 – BREEAM includes PM_2.5 because such small particles can penetrate deeply into the lung and consequently impair lung function.

Formaldehyde – Formaldehyde is frequently included as it is both an irritant at high levels (and some are sensitive to formaldehyde at low levels) and potentially carcinogenic at very high levels.

TVOC – Total VOC, TVOC, is commonly included because measuring each and every VOC is impractical, and high TVOC levels can lead to headaches, irritation and annoying odours.

Ozone – LEED includes Ozone as long-term exposure to very high levels of ozone has been associated with increased respiratory illnesses, metabolic disorders and more.

What is missing and why

What is striking is the omission of key, and common, indoor air quality factors, including air and surface borne viruses and bacteria (remember Covid-19!), air and surface borne allergens, moulds,  odours and lung irritants.

Viruses and bacteria – From the common cold to COVID-19 and far worse.

Moulds – can result in eye, nose, and throat irritation, coughs and congestion, fatigue, headaches, and exacerbate symptoms of allergies.

Allergens – pollens, dust mites and animal dander cause irritation, hay fever, rhinitis and asthma attacks.

Odours – Inorganic as well as organic.

Lung irritants – from cleaning sprays etc.

These air pollutants aren’t included in the above Indoor Environment standards because, however important and potentially harmful they are, they are difficult to measure and often transient.

How did we get here?

Over 50 years ago scientists established that there is an active ingredient in outdoor air which naturally keeps outdoor air clean, safe and fresh. Unable, at that time, to specifically identify the active ingredient, they called it the Open Air Factor (OAF).

However, those same scientists did establish that while OAF was abundant and naturally occurring outdoors, it was very short lived and largely absent indoors. They found that while indoor air is typically exchanged with outdoor air 1 – 2 times per hour, it requires air change rates of over 45 times per hour to replicate the OAF effect indoors!

With OAF missing from our indoor environment, indoor air typically remains five times more polluted than outdoor air and continues to cause health and wellbeing problems.

Previous strategies to improve the quality of indoor air have centred on setting standards for natural and forced ventilation. They include the employment of filters and avoidance of indoor pollution sources and the setting of remedial trigger levels based on a few easily measurable pollutants.

However, this is not a robust or comprehensive solution as many of the potentially harmful pollutants; viruses, bacteria, moulds, allergens, odours and lung irritants are neither monitored nor acted upon.

An OAF Indoor Air Quality Standard

Airora’s scientists discovered that the OAF is a special class of hydroxyl radical. Airora’s patented hydroxyl diffusion technology recreates this natural cleaning agent indoors. It allows Airora to keep indoor air as clean and fresh as outdoor air rather than just ventilate and set trigger levels. 

So clean and fresh that our independent panel described their experience of indoor air treated to the OAF standard variously as “outdoors” “in a spa” “on holiday by the sea” “on mountains” “in forests”.

The OAF standard inverts the traditional approach to ensuring clean, safe indoor air.

Instead of designing for natural or forced ventilation to disperse and dilute indoor pollution, which is only partially effective, the OAF approach recreates the active and abundant natural decontamination agent in outdoor air, indoors.

The results have proven to be remarkable.

All Airora’s products meet the OAF Standard - destroying or neutralising all types of germs, moulds, allergens and odours and most other irritants and harmful pollutants throughout entire indoor spaces

Table Notes:

1. Where special external or internal factors pose a significant risk of levels approaching or exceeding advisory limits, continuous monitoring is recommended.
2. Where there is a risk of CO build up indoors from burning fuels, such as in gas boilers, a CO alarm should be installed.

All Airora’s products meet the OAF Standard and are equally effective in domestic, industrial or commercial settings. Airora can be used to create a fresh, clean, safe indoor environment with or without reference to traditional IE standards such as BREEAM, LEED etc.

Where recognition is sought within the framework of traditional Indoor Environment Standards, Airora’s products can clearly also be used to achieve a high rating when assessed in accordance with those standards.

References:

1. Allen, P. et al, Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers, Environmental Health Perspectives 124 (2015) 805-812.

 

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And contact us at support@airora.com