Air Quality Matters

This week, we dive into a groundbreaking study from Dublin City University published in the Journal of Housing Studies titled Transforming Social Housing: Moving Beyond Tenant Blame to Address Systemic Indoor Environmental Quality Challenges for Healthy Homes in Ireland, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about mould and dampness in social housing: What if the single biggest barrier to fixing persistent moisture problems in social housing isn't tenant behaviour—but a broken system that uses lifestyle blame to mask decades of infrastructure failure, reactive maintenance, and profound environmental injustice?

For decades, when a tenant reports mould, the default response from landlords and housing bodies has been to point the finger squarely at the tenant's lifestyle. Clean it down, stop drying your washing on the radiators, put lids on your pots when cooking, and open the windows more. The implication is always that the tenant is causing the problem. This blame centric narrative was blown wide open in the UK following the tragic death of two year old Awaab Ishak in 2020, whose death was directly linked to severe mould in his family's social housing flat. But as the authors of this paper point out, a similar shift in understanding hasn't taken root everywhere, including in Ireland.

Key Topics Discussed:

The Infrastructure Issue: Many moisture problems are baked right into the physical infrastructure due to a legacy of outdated building regulations and past policy failures. Social homes built in the 1950s were designed with built in open fireplaces which helped ventilate the rooms. But to comply with modern European energy efficiency directives, new regulations required these fireplaces be sealed up. When you seal up the primary ventilation route and then introduce modern moisture generating appliances like dishwashers, you create a trap for dampness. Homes built during the Celtic Tiger boom led to rapid construction at the expense of quality, resulting in widespread cold bridging and thermal weak spots.

The Maintenance Issue: If buildings are flawed, the maintenance regimes designed to fix them are often just as broken. A lot of maintenance in the social housing sector operates on a responsive repairs model. You basically wait until a tenant reports a problem, and by that point, the issue has likely deteriorated significantly. One resident shared a heartbreaking story of developing chronic respiratory infections from persistent mould, despite keeping their windows open all day in the freezing cold. The landlords knew about a structural fault in the building's basement, yet the repairs remained entirely superficial.

The Lifestyle Myth and the Breakdown of Trust: Yes, human behaviour impacts indoor air quality. Drying clothes on radiators or blocking vents will absolutely trigger mould growth. But why are tenants doing this? These practices are entirely understandable when you live in a cold, rainy climate and you're struggling to heat your home. It's a symptom of fuel poverty and poor building design, not malicious intent. The real issue is a profound breakdown in communication and trust between tenants and landlords. When you sever that personal connection, the system becomes rigid and landlords default to blame centric communications.

Transforming social housing: moving beyond tenant blame to address systemic indoor environmental quality (IEQ) challenges for healthy homes in Ireland https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2026.2653612

The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with

Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/

Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/)

The One Take Podcast in Partnership with

SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/)

Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast)

If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction: The One Take Format and the Systemic Housing Crisis
00:01:01 The Tenant Blame Narrative: Why Lifestyle Excuses Mask Real Problems
00:02:31 The Research Approach: 28 Stakeholder Voices on Environmental Justice
00:03:19 Theme One: The Infrastructure Crisis—When Buildings Are Built to Fail
00:04:41 Flying Blind: The Data Gap in Irish Housing Quality
00:05:01 Theme Two: The Maintenance Failure—Reactive Systems and Fragmented Policies
00:06:28 Theme Three: The Lifestyle Myth and the Breakdown of Trust
00:07:48 The Knowledge Gap: When New Technology Meets No Training
00:08:39 The Paradigm Shift: From Blame to Partnership in Social Housing
00:09:20 Closing Thoughts: Environmental Justice and the Path to Healthy Homes

This week, we dive into a thought-provoking commentary published in the Journal of Health Security titled Catch Me If You Can: Reducing Infectious Disease Through Better Indoor Air Quality and Bio Surveillance, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about protecting public health: What if the single biggest barrier to preventing the next pandemic isn't our lack of scientific knowledge about airborne pathogens—but the boom and bust cycle of funding that prevents us from building the intelligent, integrated biosurveillance systems our buildings desperately need?

The air circulating within our indoor environments is essentially a microscopic soup containing potentially pathogenic bacteria, fungi, mould, and viruses. COVID-19 forced us to radically rethink how indoor air quality mitigates disease transmission. But the authors argue that to truly protect critical building infrastructure, we have to integrate our existing HVAC systems with active biosurveillance—meaning continuous detection of environmental flora and microbes.

Key Topics Discussed:

The Unintended Consequence of Energy Savings: Legionella, the bacteria responsible for Legionnaires disease, loves warm, stagnant water. To save energy, many building operators have lowered their water heat temperatures. By dropping those temperatures down to between 25 and 45 degrees, they inadvertently created the perfect conditions for this bacteria to proliferate. Post COVID, as buildings reopened, stagnant water sitting in pipes was suddenly aerosolized through taps and showers, leading to increased Legionella outbreaks. When we pull one lever in a building like energy efficiency, we can inadvertently create a massive public health hazard.

The Needle in a Haystack: The US government's BioWatch program, created after the 2001 anthrax letter attacks, deployed air monitoring units to detect intentional biological threats. In practice, it's incredibly clunky. The systems require actual human beings to manually retrieve samples and carry them to the lab. The tests rely on prior research, meaning the system is only looking for threats it has been programmed to find. If a brand new or engineered pathogen is floating through the air, the system might completely miss it.

Schools as Petri Dishes: Viral respiratory pathogens spread like wildfires in schools due to high occupancy density and prolonged indoor exposure. We already know how to fix this. Improving ventilation, adding HEPA filtration, and monitoring carbon dioxide significantly reduces pathogen exposure. In one trial across Los Angeles unified school districts, simply adding portable HEPA filters to classrooms reduced PM 2.5 concentrations by up to 82%. The problem is not the lack of knowledge. It's a lack of resources.

The Flaws in Our Math: We use sophisticated risk assessment models like the Wells Riley model to predict the probability of infection based on room size, ventilation rates, exposure time, and filter efficiency. These models are incredibly useful, but they have glaring blind spots. They rely heavily on steady state assumptions, assuming occupancy, ventilation rates, and pathogen shedding remain constant. They also assume that the air in a room mixes perfectly. To get this right, we need real time sensor data integrated with building controls to dynamically adjust ventilation based on actual conditions.

Catch Me if You Can: Reducing Infectious Disease Through Better Indoor Air Quality and Biosurveillance (https://doi.org/10.1177/23265094261418816)

The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with

Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/

Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/)

The One Take Podcast in Partnership with

SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/)

Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast)

If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction: The One Take Format and the Microscopic Soup We Breathe
00:01:44 The Funding Crisis: Boom and Bust Cycles in Biodefense Research
00:02:34 Case One: Energy Savings vs Legionella—The Unintended Consequence
00:03:41 Case Two: The BioWatch Program—Finding a Needle in a Haystack
00:04:49 Case Three: Schools as Petri Dishes—The Resource Gap
00:05:43 Case Four: The Flaws in Our Math—When Models Meet Reality
00:06:40 The Vicious Cycle: From Reaction to Prevention
00:07:27 The Call to Action: Smart Buildings and Steady Innovation
00:07:46 Closing Thoughts: Staying One Step Ahead of the Next Pathogen

This week, we sit down with Ciaran Byrne, Director of National Retrofit, and Brian McIntyre, Program Manager for High Performance Building Technologies at the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about decarbonising the built environment:
Key Topics Discussed:
The Energy Security Reality: You can't control the cost of energy, but you can control how much energy your building needs. Ireland imports nearly all its fossil fuels, leaving households exposed to volatile global markets. The recent energy crisis has created a monthly reminder in every electricity and heating bill that decoupling from energy dependence isn't just environmental—it's economic survival. Retrofit isn't rocket science. It's far harder. It's mass customisation at a national scale.
Always On Schemes and Multi Annual Funding: SEAI moved away from opening and closing grant windows, creating always on schemes with clear, commoditised grant amounts. No more guessing. No more waiting. Contractors know exactly what funding is available, homeowners know exactly what they'll receive, and the carbon tax was ring fenced to provide multi annual certainty out to 2030. This allowed industry to invest in skills, equipment, and capacity without the boom and bust cycles that plagued previous decades.
The Skills and Labour Challenge: Ireland needs an estimated 50,000 additional skilled trades to deliver retrofit at scale. New build offers straightforward, repetitive work on identical house types. Retrofit is mass customisation—every home is different, every household has unique needs, and crossing the threshold into someone's home requires soft skills, customer service, and technical adaptability. Retrofit is a local career. It's nationwide work. It's a legacy you leave in your own community.
GUESTS:
Ciaran Byrne
Director of National Retrofit, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ciaran-byrne-c-dir-1024682a/
Brian McIntyre
Program Manager, High Performance Building Technologies, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-mcintyre-b6474838/
SEAI https://www.seai.ie/
The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with
Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/
Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/) S&P UK (https://www.solerpalau.com/en-uk/)
The One Take Podcast in Partnership with
SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) - Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/) - iE Electronics (https://www.eielectronics.ie/) and iAir Group (https://iair-group.com/)
Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast)
If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon.
Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction: Meeting SEAI and Ireland's Decarbonisation Mission
00:02:22 Energy Security and the Controllables: Why Fabric First Still Matters
00:08:40 SEAI's Role: From Energy Agency to National Retrofit Delivery Body
00:11:32 The Game-Changing Reforms: Always-On Schemes and Commoditized Grants
00:22:03 Demand Generation: From Ukraine War to Energy Bills as Monthly Reminders
00:24:49 Going Mainstream: When Retrofit Becomes Common Knowledge
00:30:54 Beyond Energy Savings: The Comfort, Health, and Well-Being Case
00:38:38 Affordability and the Hidden Energy Poor: Who Gets Left Behind
00:48:01 The Skills and Labour Challenge: Competing with New Build
00:57:34 Quality Control and Avoiding the Horror Stories
00:50:02 The Data Revolution: From Static BER to Real-Time Building Performance
01:22:30 The Next Five Years: Digital Journeys, High-Temperature Heat Pumps, and AI
01:37:13 Closing Thoughts: Making Retrofit as Easy as Ordering from Amazon

This week, we dive into a fascinating paper from the Journal of Sustainable Futures titled Co-creating Sustainable Innovations in Irish Social Housing Through Participatory Research, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about indoor air quality intervention: What if the single biggest barrier to deploying environmental sensors in homes isn't the technology—but the complete absence of trust, agency, and meaningful participation from the people whose living rooms we're trying to monitor?

In Ireland, social housing providers act as landlords responsible for repair, maintenance, and dealing with problems like dampness and mould. But their strategy is almost entirely reactive—waiting for residents to call and report a problem. By the time that call is made, the resident has likely already been exposed to harmful levels of damp and mould for a prolonged period, and the building's infrastructure may already be compromised. The SHINE project (Sustainable Homes Integrating Non-Intrusive Environmental Sensors) aimed to transition from reactive maintenance to proactive monitoring using low cost environmental sensors. But the researchers knew they couldn't just drop technology into people's living rooms without asking them first.

Key Topics Discussed:

The Historical Baggage Problem: Top down regeneration and sustainability projects in Ireland have a shaky track record. Dolphin House residents spent over a decade fighting for regeneration due to horrific living conditions and severe mould. Despite 25 million allocated in 2016, years later only a fraction has been retrofitted. When you have that kind of historical baggage, trust is understandably low.

The Fear of Surveillance and Data Exploitation: When you tell someone you're putting a sensor in their home, their mind immediately jumps to surveillance. Residents worried landlords were spying on them, recording audio and video, that data would be weaponised to evict them. What if environmental data showing a resident lived in a damp, mouldy home found its way to a health insurance provider? It could literally affect their ability to get coverage for lung conditions.

The Challenge of Meaningful Participation: Consultations can easily turn into forums for venting. Stakeholders advised that the project had to clearly answer the resident's fundamental question: what's in it for us? If sensors are just seen as a tool for the landlord to save money on maintenance, residents will push back. The narrative has to focus on how sensors save the resident's time, reduce their bills, and protect their health.

The Blame Narrative Problem: For years, the narrative around mould has been to blame the resident—telling them they just aren't opening their windows enough or they're drying too many clothes indoors. Approaching residents with a patronising or blaming tone will cause them to instantly refuse participation.

Co-creating sustainable innovations in Irish social housing through participatory research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2026.101740

The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with

Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/

Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/)

The One Take Podcast in Partnership with

SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/)

Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast)

If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction: The One Take Format and the Participatory Research Paper
00:01:11 The Reactive Maintenance Problem: When Waiting Means Harm
00:01:54 The SHINE Project: Shifting from Reactive to Proactive Monitoring
00:02:35 The Historical Baggage: Why Top-Down Projects Fail in Ireland
00:03:49 The Participatory Research Approach: 28 Stakeholder Voices
00:04:27 Barrier One: The Fear of Surveillance and Data Exploitation
00:05:40 Barrier Two: The Challenge of Meaningful Participation
00:06:32 Barrier Three: Specific Needs of Vulnerable Populations
00:07:25 The Engineering Response: Data Minimization and Edge Computing
00:08:10 Flipping the Power Dynamic: User Control and Inert Design
00:09:16 The Real Barrier: Participation by Design, Not Technology
00:10:09 Closing Thoughts: Listening First, Building Better

This week, we sit down with Kwok Wai THam, President of Indoor Air 2026 with Vice Presidents, Yvonne Soh, and Chandra Sekhar, to explore a question that fundamentally challenges how we think about the evolution of indoor air quality: What if the single most important shift in the last two decades isn't just our deeper understanding of the science—but our recognition that clean indoor air is now a fundamental human right, requiring resilience, technology, and human centric design to deliver?

Key Topics Discussed:

From Reactive to Proactive: In 2003, the focus was on sick building syndrome and reactive maintenance. In 2026, the conversation has shifted to proactive biosurveillance, real-time sensor networks, and predictive analytics powered by artificial intelligence. Buildings are no longer passive containers. They are intelligent systems capable of detecting, responding to, and mitigating indoor air quality problems before occupants even notice.

The Complexity Problem: Indoor environments are more complex than ever. New synthetic materials off-gas volatile organic compounds. Occupancy densities have increased. External pollution from wildfires, traffic, and industrial sources infiltrates buildings faster than ventilation systems can respond. And climate change is compounding thermal discomfort, humidity challenges, and energy demands. Science has advanced, but so have the problems.

Human Centric Design and Adaptive Comfort: Singapore has pioneered mixed-mode ventilation strategies that work with the weather rather than against it. When outdoor conditions are acceptable, buildings switch to natural ventilation. When temperatures rise, air conditioning activates. This approach reduces energy consumption while maintaining thermal comfort. But it requires rethinking occupant expectations, building controls, and system resilience during transient conditions.

Fifteen Sub Themes and a Global Conversation: Indoor Air 2026 features fifteen technical sub themes covering everything from source control and materials selection to airborne infectious disease, smart building technology, and policy development. The conference deliberately avoids regional segmentation. Every theme is global. Every challenge is universal. The goal is cross learning—taking lessons from Latin America, Europe, Asia, and North America and applying them everywhere.

GUESTS:

Prof. Tham Kwok Wai

President, Indoor Air 2026 | National University of Singapore

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tham-kwok-wai-0623aa44/

Engr. Yvonne Soh

Vice President, Indoor Air 2026 | CEO, Singapore Green Building Council

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonne-soh-0a78934/

Prof. Chandra Sekhar

Vice President, Indoor Air 2026 | National University of Singapore

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandra-sekhar/

Indoor Air 2026 https://www.indoorair2026.org/

The Air Quality Matters Podcast in Partnership with

Particles Plus https://particlesplus.com/

Eurovent (https://www.eurovent.eu/) - Aico (https://www.aico.co.uk/) - Lindab (https://www.lindab.ie/)

The One Take Podcast in Partnership with

SafeTraces (https://www.safetraces.com/) and Inbiot (https://www.inbiot.es/?utm_campaign=simon&utm_source=airqualitymatters&utm_medium=podcast) - Farmwood (https://farmwood.co.uk/)

Do check them out in the links and on the Air Quality Matters Website. (https://www.airqualitymatters.net/podcast)

If you haven't checked out the YouTube channel its here (https://www.youtube.com/@airqualitymatters-SimonJones). Do subscribe if you can, lots more content is coming soon.

Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction: Welcome to Indoor Air 2026 Preview
00:02:46 Twenty Years of Progress: Reflecting on Indoor Air Since 2003
00:06:48 The Pandemic Parallel: SARS-CoV-1 Then, COVID-19 Now
00:10:22 From Sick Buildings to Human-Centered Design: The Green Building Evolution
00:13:17 The Conference Theme: Enhancing Well-Being Through Resilience and Understanding
00:15:38 Fifteen Sub-Themes: From Source Control to Clean Air Equivalence
00:19:12 The Complexity Challenge: More Knowledge, More Problems
00:22:01 Technology as Enabler: Sensors, Data, and Artificial Intelligence
00:27:10 Singapore as Living Laboratory: Climate, Walkability, and Mixed-Mode Design
00:35:26 The Conference Experience: Venue, Schedule, and Parallel Sessions
00:49:50 Keynote Speakers: From Science to Policy and Translational Impact
00:49:17 Special Events: Global Clean Air Pledge and Medical-Engineering Collaboration
01:00:25 Beyond the Conference Rooms: Technical Tours and Indoors Go Out
01:03:26 Investing in the Future: Summer School and Career Pathways
01:04:39 The Next Generation: Young Professionals and Sustainability Impact
01:09:33 Global Gathering: 900 Delegates from Every Continent