Healthy Indoors Magazine - USA Edition

Bob Krell Founder & Publisher 4 | March 2022 Bob Krell Bob Krell is president of IAQ Technologies, Inc., a Syracuse, NY-based indoor environmental firm he founded in 1990, offering consulting, mitigation and training services to a variety of clients throughout the country and abroad. He co-founded IAQNET, LLC in 2013, and serves as publisher of its Healthy Indoors Magazine. Bob is the Producer/Director for the online video series, The Healthy Indoors Show, along with numerous other industry video projects and online events, and is Training Director for live distance learning offerings through IAQschool.online. Contact him at: bob@healthyindoors.com Publisher's Rant The NEW Normal for 2022? H ere we are, closing out the first quarter of yet another year. Global unrest, soaring fuel prices, and yes there's still a COVID-19 pandemic as SARS-COV-2 continues to morph, albeit with fewer fatalities among the world's vaccinated populations. We are now more than two years into the latter, and fatigue from dealing with this virus has worn us all thin. As this crisis wanes, the world will likely approach COVID-19 more like the annual flu viruses, with a bit less horror and economic impact, but still a threat to the sizable subset of medically compromised individuals around the globe. Remnants of this pandemic will be with us for many years to come. And the acute awareness of how our indoor environments is designed and maintained can indeed affect our health will (hope- fully) become etched in our memories. Like I've been saying since the beginning, we need to collectively advance how we manage our indoor spaces and use these horrific events to provide the incentives for doing so. As this month's cover indicates, there was some big news from Washington, D.C., this week as the White House an- nounced plans to pursue some substantial indoor air quality (IAQ) initiatives. This is actually new territory for White House policy since no previous administration has ever really focused on IAQ/IEQ in the past. How far this goes in practice is still anyone's guess, but the first volley has been fired and there appears to be serious interest from the Biden adminis- tration in making buildings healthier. Even at face value alone, this is potentially great news for those of us in the indoor environmental industry, and it could have positive effects. Petroleum prices skyrocketed around the world as Russia invaded Ukraine last month destabilizing Europe in a way not seen since the Second World War. Much of the blame for the jump is squarely on the shoulders of Russia's authoritarian President Putin, but lest we not forget the price/supply manipulation by OPEC and the world's oil and gas companies. Last year's record profits haven't seemed to quench their corporate thirst for even more consumer money. We need to ween-off fossil fuels and implement alternatives now. This year has clearly illustrated that on top of climate change concerns. Perhaps we are just experiencing our new normal in these early months of 2022? If that indeed is the case, we need to make some serious adjustments.

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