Soaring rates of asthma and other respiratory conditions triggered by unprecedented levels of damp and mould in UK homes could be tackled through improving the ventilation and heating and developing training and competence schemes for ventilation installers and maintainers, the Association said.

More than a quarter of UK homes are now suffering from damp and mould, according to research by University College London (UCL). This is down to a combination of more extreme weather conditions, building defects and human behaviour driven by fuel poverty, and is having a huge impact on “multiple health conditions”.

Dr Yasemin Aktas, associate professor in UCL’s Faculty of Engineering Sciences, told the recent BSRIA Briefing event in London that there were now more fuel poor households in the UK than ever before. She said many were not being properly heated – and that 6.5 million homes (approximately 27% of the total) were now affected by damp and mould.

“Moisture is a tremendously important element of indoor environmental quality that is often overlooked,” she said. “Modern building materials and furnishings have very little moisture buffering capacity.”

The event heard from a range of experts calling for more concerted action on indoor air quality (IAQ) and moisture control in buildings, but Aktas said “poor choices” made by occupants due to their lack of understanding of the problem must also be addressed.

Exposure
She cited the case of two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale whose death was the result of a “severe respiratory condition caused by prolonged exposure to mould in his home” according to a coroner’s report which added: “There was no evidence that up-to-date relevant health information pertaining to the risks of damp and mould was easily accessible to the housing sector.”

Aktas, who is also deputy academic director at the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB), said there was very little research into the issue of moisture in buildings and a lack of quality guidance. “We need to find a way of integrating moisture management into building retrofits. We were very quick to improve insulation for energy efficiency but without thinking about the impact that would have on moisture levels.”

BSRIA chief executive Julia Evans told the Briefing that breathing clean air would be enshrined as a “human right” if the proposed new Clean Air Act was passed by Parliament next year.

“Humans take 20,000 breaths a day…and IAQ can be as much as 8 or ten times more polluted than the outdoors, which shows why we need policies on building ventilation,” she told the event which took ‘Cleaner Air Better Tomorrow’ as its theme.

BBC environment and energy correspondent Roger Harrabin urged the industry to take “a more holistic approach”. “There is some great academic work going on in pockets, but please collaborate more,” he said.

Harrabin was also critical of new legislation designed to force landlords to address mould and damp, which he said, “looks a bit loose…it’s not clear how householders are supposed to report problems”. He added that the government “also scuppered the energy efficiency rules so landlords are still allowed to leave people in sub-standard homes.”

He said a big part of the problem was the building industry’s determination to “resist change” and accused property firms of “fighting tooth and nail against anything that might add cost to their building work”.

Another factor is that IAQ is often perceived as “a local problem affected by local conditions like traffic and weather”, according to the Met Office’s head of air quality Dr Matthew Hort. “But it’s actually a massive global issue, just like climate change, and needs the same level of concerted action.”

Harrabin noted that the government was clearly “very keen to get air quality off its agenda and leave it to local authorities to sort out, but then didn’t give them enough money to deal with it.”

The conference also heard that we may be reaching a tipping point where indoor pollution becomes a bigger issue than the outdoor conditions. Professor Enda Hayes from the University of the West of England (UWE) also said that air quality contributed to social inequality.

Exposed
“The richer you are the more pollution you produce but the less you are exposed to – it’s the other way around for the poorest in our society,” he said.

BESA recently launched new guidance: ‘Mould and Damp Prevention in new and existing Homes’ and the vice chair of its specialist IAQ Group said it was time to create a “whole new industry” to tackle the problems highlighted during the BSRIA Briefing.

Adam Taylor, CEO of ARM Environments, pointed out that there were currently no competence requirements for people working in ventilation installation and maintenance.

“Moisture build-up in homes is already at an unprecedented level and the problem is going to get worse because the cost of heating is causing people to reduce ventilation. The mould this creates causes real suffering and is a massive burden on the NHS. 

“We are carrying out a lot more risk assessments and air quality monitoring, which has highlighted just how many buildings are seriously under-ventilated.  We need to create a new profession of specialists focused specifically on ventilation with formal qualifications, agreed standards and best practice,” Taylor added.