Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.healthyindoors.com/i/1489776
30 | December 2022 SUSTAINABILITY Snippets By Davena Halak I t was a busy year for federal initiatives for the indoor envi- ronment. Seems like advo- cating for change regarding the indoor environment has been going on for longer than I've been alive. I recently spent more than three hours watching the fall's White House Summit on In- door Air Quality (IAQ). If you ha- ven't seen it, check it out on You- Tube at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=q1HCG1aXaBg&t=21s. Let's just look at something that has my attention right now… schools. As a high school senior, I am amazed at what the Biden action plan on IAQ sets forth to do, and especially look forward to the coming changes that are planned to happen in high schools across the nation. To begin with, in the opening statement of the White House Summit, a solution regarding exces- sive deaths due to indoor air quality is proposed: "To deal with diseases is to go out and build more hospitals, train millions of doctors and nurses, and accept more deaths." However, this is not an ideal solution; it is only a dis- traction from the real problem. So, it seems the purpose of the summit is to highlight the work that is being done at the White House admin- istration to directly address and hold people accountable for their role re- garding the indoor environment; there What I Learned from White House Summit into a very humid classroom one hour and moving onto an excessively cold one the next. My hope is that schools can begin to regulate the temperature and air quality in all classrooms and common areas of the building. I think I learned the most from Jo- seph Allen, associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and director of Healthy Building Initiatives, here in my state. Allen begins his speech by stating a fact that caught me off guard: 90 percent of your life is spent indoors. When I heard this statement, it got me thinking. At first, I didn't believe it. Then, I started think- ing about all the "indoor" aspects of my life including cars, school, my house, are no more excuses that can fly un- der the radar. For example, landlords and building managers really play a bigger role in people's health than do actual doctors. I understand this more than ever because if you operate or run a building, it is your responsibility to make sure that the place you run has not become a place that unneces- sarily spreads viruses and gets peo- ple sick. Because of the realization of how impactful buildings may be, the U.S. Department of Energy is now offering schools one-to-one consulta- tion to improve their indoor air quality. This could be great news for students because we have all experienced go- ing through our schedule and running The school panel at last fall's White House IAQ Summit.