UK's summer 2022 drought provides warning for future years

Scientists say improved real-time monitoring and forecasting systems would inform early mitigation measures

UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY

 

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PENTWYN RESERVOIR DURING THE 2022 DROUGHT

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CREDIT: PHOTO: ALAN HUGHES VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The UK will be increasingly tested by more droughts like 2022, emphasising the importance of being prepared for similar extreme weather in future, say scientists who have analysed that summer’s events.

The newly published study by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) outlines how the drought evolved and its impacts on water resources, wildlife and people, comparing the situation with previous droughts and looks at whether it is an indication of future events.

Summer 2022 was the joint hottest (with 2018) and fifth driest since the 1890s. The drought affected large parts of the country and was the worst in some areas since 1976. It was part of wider European drought, believed to be the worst on the continent in 500 years.

The prolonged and extensive exceptional heat, dry soils and low river flows had impacts across much of the UK including water restrictions – with six companies introducing hosepipe bans affecting around 20 million people – and restrictions on waterways navigation.

Extensive challenges for agriculture included low crop and milk yields, as well as dying grass in grazing fields that forced farmers to use winter food stores. During the summer, there were nearly 25,000 wildfires; they spread easily across dry fields and also affected urban areas. Environmental impacts included algal blooms and fish kills.

A Level 4 heat health alert was issued for the first time since its introduction in 2004, and an estimated 2,800 excess deaths of over 65s due to heat between June and August.

That summer’s events underline our continuing vulnerability to intense droughts associated with low spring/summer rainfall alongside very high temperatures – especially given it followed shortly another intense summer drought in 2018.

UKCEH hydrologist Jamie Hannaford, one of the authors of the study, said: “The 2022 drought posed significant challenges to water management and communication with the public given the speed of onset of drought conditions and impacts. It has provided water managers with an important stress test, enabling them to assess our resilience to the kind of extreme event that we will see much more of in future.”

Hydrologists classify 2022 as a summer drought, which developed relatively quickly, as opposed to a multi-year drought driven by successive dry winters. While there is significant uncertainty about how multi-year droughts may evolve in future, scientists are highly confident, based on modelling, that we will be increasingly tested by more droughts like 2022. Human-driven climate warming increases the risk of droughts like 2018 and 2022, associated with drier summers and higher temperatures.

The authors of the study, published in the Royal Meteorological Society journal Weather, say the impacts on water supply were relatively modest in terms of duration and areas affected. Like 2018, this was largely due to wetter winters before and after the drought.

They say droughts like 2022 emphasise the need for improved real-time monitoring and forecasting systems. This would give an indication of the likely impacts that may lie ahead, to help apply mitigation measures – such as restrictions on abstractions or efforts to safeguard the environment like fish rescues – at an early stage.

UKCEH oversees COSMOS-UK, a long-term network of soil moisture monitoring sites, producing live data, which was used for the 2022 drought study.

It is also leading the development of a Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI), funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The new instruments will produce an extensive range of new measurements across several UK catchments. The data will enable researchers to improve computer models to predict when and where droughts and floods will happen, and how severe they will be. 

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Paper information

Barker et al. 2024. An appraisal of the severity of the 2022 drought and its impacts. Weather. DOI: 10.1002/wea.4531. Open access.

The study was carried out as part of UKCEH work funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, including the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme and CANARI.

Media enquiries

For interviews and more information, please contact Simon Williams, Media Relations Officer at UKCEH, via simwil@ceh.ac.uk or +44 (0)7920 295384.

About the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a centre for excellence in environmental science across water, land and air. We have a long history of investigating, monitoring and modelling environmental change, and our science makes a positive difference in the world.

Combining expertise in hydro-meteorology with data derived from national monitoring networks, we measure and model water to accurately predict, mitigate and manage the impacts of floods and droughts. 

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a strategic delivery partner for the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

www.ceh.ac.uk / @UK_CEH / LinkedIn: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

 

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JOURNAL

Weather

DOI

10.1002/wea.4531 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

ARTICLE TITLE

An appraisal of the severity of the 2022 drought and its impacts

 

Movement of crops, animals played a key role in domestication

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

 

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XINYI LIU IS AN ARCHAEOLOGIST OF FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT WHO STUDIES PLANT DOMESTICATION, AGRICULTURAL ORIGINS AND PREHISTORIC FOOD GLOBALIZATION.

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CREDIT: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

Archaeologist Xinyi Liu at Washington University in St. Louis teamed up with Martin Jones of the University of Cambridge to write a new paper for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that explains how recent research is connecting the science of biological domestication to early food globalization.

Liu, an associate professor of archaeology and associate chair of the Department of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences, proposes a new conceptual framework to understand domestication, which is relevant not only to anthropology but other fields such as biology and ecology.

In this Q&A, he also offers his perspective on how understanding the past conditions can help us to forge a vision for the future.

***

The domestication of plants and animals is among the most significant transitions in human history. How has our understanding of domestication changed recently?

Our new article focuses on how we conceptualize domestication. A considerable intellectual legacy has depicted domestication as a series of short-lived, localized and episodic events. Some of the literature, particularly those pieces dating back to the early 20th century, envisioned the process as a transition from humans within nature to humans controlling nature in a revolutionary fashion.

The metaphor there is “revolution.” So, as people described it, there was a “Neolithic Revolution” that functioned in a similar way as the “Industrial Revolution” or the “scientific revolution” — a rapid technological shift followed by changes in societies, according to some narratives.

It is time to reconsider all this. Newly emergent evidence from the last 15 years challenges the idea of rapid domestication. This evidence shows unambiguously that plant and animal domestication in a range of species entailed a more gradual transition spanning a few thousand years across extensive geographies.

How has archaeology contributed to this line of inquiry?

Much of this evidence was brought to light by archaeological and scientific investigations. For example, it took about 5,000 years for the domestication traits of wheat to be fully developed from its wild morphology, according to archaeobotanical work in the Near East. In the lower Yangtze Valley in China, research informed a similar process that ancient communities had cultivated rice for a few millennia before the plant reached domesticated states, in the biological sense.

So domestication has extended in time. But you also argue that it has extended in space. What does that mean?

Over the last 15 years we’ve also seen an improvement in the understanding of how people have moved domesticated plants and animals over continents. In some cases, people moved crops and stocks before the genetic changes associated with domestication were fully fixed within the species. This raises questions about the role translocations played in the domestication process.

Central to our inquiry is the relationship between domesticated crops and stocks and their free-living ancestors, or progenitors. Newer genetic evidence suggests that long-term gene flow between wild and domestic species was much more common than previously appreciated.

It makes sense: At the so-called domestication center, where ancestral varieties were dominant, such gene flow would have been very strong. No meaningful mechanism could have stopped the introgression.

But if farmers took their crops, or herders their stocks, and moved to a new environment beyond the natural distribution of the ancestors, then selection pressures would have changed dramatically. Eventually you are domesticating in a single pathway, with no return. Such a process has been documented genetically and archaeologically in a number of domesticated species, such as maize and wheat.

How do human preferences or traditions factor in?

If crop or stock movements were entangled with the domestication process, the newly introduced species would have to adapt to the new physical environment encountered. But they would have also been adapted to align with new cultural habits. We envision both the physical and cultural adaptation played roles in the fixation of some domestication traits.

Does this research have any implications for modern agriculture?

Understanding the past conditions can help us to forge visions about the future. In that sense, archaeology plays a key role in establishing the historical and community roots of a range of contemporary challenges, such as food security, planetary health and sustainability, providing solutions drawing from humanity at the deepest level.

One such example is the positive impact that archaeogenetic research about millet made on the livelihoods of farmers across the globe. At its 75th session, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets to raise awareness of the crop’s deep community roots and future potential. There has been considerable recent momentum in understanding the biodiversity and historical geography of millets, which are a diverse group of cereals originating from several continents, including pearl, proso (or broomcorn), foxtail, barnyard, little, kodo, browntop, finger and fonio millets.

Millets can grow on arid lands with minimal inputs and are resilient to changes in climate. They are, therefore, an ideal solution for communities to increase self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on imported cereal grains.

These grains once sustained ancient populations by large. Archaeology played a key role in establishing the original biogeography, domestication and early dispersals of millets. The knowledge we have gained consequently has profoundly impacted food security and conservation in areas where millets are culturally relevant.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2219055121 

ARTICLE TITLE

Needs for a conceptual bridge between biological domestication and early food globalization

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Mar-2024

 

Carbon credits would enable restoration of UK saltmarshes say experts

Feasibility study backs introduction of UK Saltmarsh Code and carbon trading scheme

UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY

 

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SALTMARSH IN THE RIBBLE ESTUARY

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CREDIT: STEFANIE CARTER

While the marshes may have meant danger for Pip in Great Expectations, these wetland habitats are important wildlife havens and mitigate climate change.

However, since Dickens’s celebrated novel was published in 1860, 85% of England’s saltmarsh has been lost as land has been claimed from the sea for agriculture, development or coastal flood defences. This has resulted in the release of greenhouse gases as well as the loss of biodiversity and natural buffer zones protecting properties and infrastructure from flooding.

The introduction of a carbon credit scheme, enabling companies to invest in the restoration of the UK’s degraded saltmarshes and voluntarily offset their greenhouse gas emissions, would be viable, a study led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) has found.

A partnership of scientists, charities and financial experts investigated the feasibility of a Saltmarsh Carbon Code, similar to the existing Peatland and Woodland codes, which would create a rigorous and scientifically-based voluntary certification standard for saltmarsh carbon to be marketed and traded by UK companies. This would assure buyers of carbon credits that the climate benefits being sold are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent.

The independent study, funded by a UK Government grant, found the introduction of a UK-wide code and carbon credit scheme would be feasible, and provide a pipeline for private investment to contribute to restoration projects, providing there was also some level of public financing in restoration projects.

So far, there has been relatively limited saltmarsh restoration in the UK, with the majority of schemes to date providing compensatory habitat for damage to designated sites due to development. However, there is an increasing interest by companies in carbon credits, which could accelerate saltmarsh restoration.

At present, the UK only has about 45,000 hectares of natural saltmarsh remaining. It is estimated that these accumulate up to around 700,000 tonnes of CO2 a year and the top 10cm of UK saltmarsh soil hold a total of around 2.3 million tonnes of carbon.

The total amount of carbon sequestration could increase with effective restoration, which usually involves managed realignment of coastline by deliberating reflooding land to restore a coastal wetland habitat. Saltmarshes trap and bury atmospheric carbon in the sediment beneath them and the vegetation that grows on them.

UKCEH wetland scientist Annette Burden led the study, which also involved WWT, RSPB, the University of St Andrews, Bangor University, SRUC, IUCN National Committee UK, Finance Earth and Jacobs.

She says: “Saltmarshes can play an important role in addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. Restoring sites across the country would support progress towards our net zero targets and provide vital habitat for wildlife, including overwintering migratory birds and commercially important fish species such as Seabass.

“The introduction of a Saltmarsh Code would pave the way for private investment to support projects that have some public financing but would not otherwise happen.”

Varying factors such as ground conditions, design complexity and compensation to landowners mean the cost of restoration can be unpredictable, even after restoration work has begun, which is why public financing is considered essential to cover some of the costs.

The research team looked at how much of the cost of the planned restoration of RSPB Old Hall Marshes in Essex could be covered by private investment and reviewed whether carbon finance could have raised enough funds for the managed realignment of WWT Steart Marshes in Somerset which was carried out in 2014.

The analysis found that with grants, the WWT Steart Marshes scheme would have been able to generate market rate returns for equity investors, and therefore attract sufficient investment to be financially viable. The project team, backed by further Environment Agency/Defra funding, is now developing a pilot Saltmarsh Code for further testing, with the hope that a saltmarsh carbon credits system could be introduced in 2025.

The feasibility study and more information about the ongoing work on the Saltmarsh Code are available on the UKCEH website. 

UKCEH has produced a podcast on the role and importance saltmarshes as part of its Counting the Earth series, as well as a saltmarsh factsheet.

Our scientists are establishing the first network of greenhouse gas monitoring stations on saltmarshes around the UK coast. These flux towers will measure how much carbon dioxide gas is captured from the atmosphere and stored as carbon within the saltmarsh ecosystem.

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Media enquiries

For interviews and more information, please contact Simon Williams, Media Relations Officer at UKCEH, via simwil@ceh.ac.uk or +44 (0)7920 295384.

 

Notes to Editors

The Saltmarsh Code project was funded by a £100,000 grant from the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF), an initiative by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and Natural England which aims to stimulate private investment to improve and safeguard our natural environment. Ongoing work until March 2025 is funded by a £200,000 grant from the Environment Agency and Defra.

The UKCEH-led saltmarsh feasibility report suggested a price cap of £150 per saltmarsh carbon credit, which is considered by Finance Earth to be a conservative assumption, given the recent significant increases in voluntary carbon prices in the UK and globally.

The project team suggested the introduction of a UK-wide saltmarsh code, concluding the cost of adopting the VM0033 international verification scheme was likely to make most projects not financially viable.

Given the uncertainty over potential carbon accumulation rates for different saltmarsh sites, the researchers calculated a range of estimates for their two case studies.

About the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a world-leading centre for excellence in environmental sciences across water, land and air. We have a long history of monitoring and modelling environmental change.

UKCEH undertakes long-term national surveys of both natural and managed environments, focusing on carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. We make a major contribution to the UK national and international greenhouse gas emissions inventories, and we improve understanding of the role that land use has on emissions. We are contributing to the development of peatland and saltmarsh carbon codes – voluntary certification standards, enabling peatland and saltmarsh carbon to be marketed and purchased by private investors – thereby providing an income stream for the achievement of national net zero goals.

The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is a strategic delivery partner for the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

www.ceh.ac.uk / @UK_CEH /  LinkedIn: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

 

US Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

HERSHEY, Pa. — Despite evidence that financial conflicts of interest may influence medical practice and research and may erode patient trust in medical professionals, these relationships remain pervasive. According to a new analysis of the Open Payments platform, a database that tracks payments between physicians and industry, a team led by a Penn State researcher found that doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013 and 2022. 

Their findings published today (March 28) in JAMA. It’s one of the first studies to look at industry payments longitudinally and by specialty. 

“Overall, it shows that the Open Payments is not much more than a ledger sheet. Whether there is a need for deterrence or changed behaviors requires a broader conversation with public involvement,” said Andrew Foy, associate professor, Penn State College of Medicine and corresponding author on the paper.

In 2013, the Physician Payments Sunshine Act was passed in response to calls for greater transparency on financial relationships between physicians and teaching hospitals and the makers of drugs and medical devices. It led to the creation of the Open Payments database. Manufacturers are required to submit information on all payments and transfers of value.

For this paper, the team used data from Open Payments from 2013 to 2022. They included payments (both cash and non-cash equivalents) to physicians for consulting services, non-consulting services, food and beverages, travel and lodging, entertainment, education, gifts, grants, charitable contributions and honoraria. They analyzed data across 39 specialties. They also looked at within-specialty variation — the difference between the median amount paid to physicians in a specialty and the mean amount paid to the top 0.1% of physicians in that specialty. Lastly, they determined the 25 drugs and medical devices associated with the largest total payments.

The analysis showed that more than half of physicians received at least one payment and roughly 94% of payments were associated with one or more marketed medical product. A small percentage of physicians received the largest amounts, often exceeding $1 million. Orthopedic surgeons received the greatest sum of payments while pediatric surgeons received the least amount. 

Other authors on the paper are Ahmed Sayed from Ain Shams University, Joseph Ross from Yale School of Medicine, John Mandrola from Baptist Health, Lisa Soleymani Lehmann from Harvard Medical School.

This project was not supported by external grants or funds.

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JOURNAL

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jama.2024.1989 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Industry Payments to US Physicians by Specialty and Product Type

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Mar-2024

Industry payments to US physicians by specialty and product type

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: From 2013 to 2022, U.S. physicians received $12.1 billion from industry. More than half of physicians received at least one payment. Payments varied widely between specialties and between physicians within the same specialty. A small number of physicians received the largest amounts, often exceeding $1 million, while the median physician received much less, typically less than a hundred dollars.  

Authors: Andrew J. Foy, M.D., of the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2024.1989)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.1989?guestAccessKey=09640006-76f3-4829-94b9-b6839dfb0eb8&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=032824

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JOURNAL

JAMA

 

Manganese plays a surprising role in soil carbon sequestration

Exchangeable manganese, like that emitted by industry, cuts carbon storage in boreal forests

DUKE UNIVERSITY

 

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A SCENE FROM THE BOREAL FOREST OF THE DAXING'AN MOUNTAINS IN CHINA.

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CREDIT: JINGHUA YU

DURHAM, N.C. – Manganese in the soil of boreal forests has been found to work against the carbon storage capacity of these crucial northern habitats.

Located predominantly in cold regions at high latitude, boreal forests are estimated to store nearly 30 percent of the world’s soil carbon, making them the world’s largest reservoir of land-based carbon. This stored carbon is found mostly in the forests’ humus layer, which contains decomposed leaves and other organic matter.

A global, long-term study led by Duke University researchers has found that higher levels of manganese in this layer stimulated decomposition of soil organic matter, and released more carbon dioxide than did those forest plots with less or no manganese. The work appeared March 19  in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Conventional wisdom is these forests are like a global vault of carbon, where carbon is put into the vault versus taken out,” said William H. Schlesinger, professor emeritus at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and study co-author. “These findings reveal a crack in the vault, where enough manganese over time stimulates the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which has implications for climate mitigation efforts and the global carbon cycle,” said Schlesinger. 

Certain industrial processes, such as metal smelting or combustion of manganese-containing fuels, can release airborne manganese which is later deposited in soils downwind. 

This is one of many human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use changes, that have disturbed the natural carbon cycle, leading to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that contribute to global warming and climate change. 

“Carbon inventorying is still an evolving science,” said Yunyu Zhang, lead author and graduate student from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “It is essential to figure out which factors regulate this huge carbon pool [in boreal forests’ soil], especially given continuous… industrialization.”  

Researchers analyzed data from boreal forests worldwide, and fertilized soil with manganese over 14 years (2009-2023) in China’s Daxing’an Mountains. Results showed the level of exchangeable manganese -- the part of manganese that plants can use as nutrients -- determined how much carbon was stored in boreal forest soil. After four years, carbon storage on plots fertilized with manganese fell by nearly 13 percent, meaning more carbon was released into the atmosphere.  

“To develop effective and sustainable strategies, it is critical to understand complex interactions between trace nutrients and carbon storage,” Zhang said. “It is even more important to predict how those interactions work in the long term, considering the impact of human activities.”    

Schlesinger emphasized the need for further research and action, noting how the study’s findings highlight the importance of soil nutrient dynamics, such as the level of exchangeable manganese, in climate change mitigation efforts.  

He urged further study of the role of manganese not only in soil, but also in the air, on land-based carbon emissions, the boreal forest ecosystem, and climate mitigation.

“There’s no proverbial foolproof vault or absolute forest sink,” Schlesinger said. “We need integrated approaches to land management and climate mitigation. Climate has traditionally been considered a major factor in carbon storage, but we now see how manganese is also a key indicator, something that has long been overlooked and underexamined.” 

The National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences co-funded the study.

CITATION: “Exchangeable Manganese Regulates Carbon Storage in the Humus Layer of Boreal Forests,” Yunyu Zhang, Sarah E. Hobbie, William H. Schlesinger, Bjorn Berg, Tao Sun, Jiaojun Zhu. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, March 19, 2024. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2318382121  

Online: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2318382121

 

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2318382121 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Exchangeable Manganese Regulates Carbon Storage in the Humus Layer of Boreal Forests

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Mar-2024

 

Blueprint for mandating indoor air quality for public buildings in form of standards

Peer-Reviewed Publication

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

 

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PROFESSOR MORAWSKA IS LEADING INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS PRESENTING A BLUEPRINT FOR NATIONAL INDOOR QUALITY STANDARDS FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

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CREDIT: QUT

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• International experts set out standards for monitoring three key indoor pollutants
• Adequate ventilation for number of occupants and activities must be taken into account
• Carbon dioxide and PM2.5 particles and carbon monoxide are three pollutants requiring monitoring to assess healthy

  The experts addressed setting standards for three key indoor pollutants – carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), PM2.5 which are particles so small they can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream - and ventilation rate.

  Distinguished Professor Morawska, from the QUT School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, internationally known, among others, for leading the appeal to the WHO to recognise the airborne transmission spread of the Covid-19 virus early in the pandemic, has continued to raise the importance of adequate indoor air quality for public spaces.

  “M­­­ost countries do not have any legislated indoor air quality (IAQ) performance standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of IA pollutants,” Professor Morawska said.

  “To have practical value, IAQ standards must be implementable by designing new buildings that are built, operated and maintained to standard or retrofitted to meet the standards.

  “While there is a cost in the short term, the social and economic benefits to public health, wellbeing and productivity will likely far outweigh the investment in cost in achieving clean indoor air.”

  Professor Morawska said CO2 sensors were readily available, inexpensive and robust and should be used as a proxy to measure pathogens and CO2 during human occupancy in a public space.

  “CO2 can serve as a proxy for occupant-emitted contaminants and pathogens and to effectively assess ventilation quality,” she said.

  “We propose a CO2 concentration level of 800ppm with the proviso that outdoor concentration is used as a baseline and recognition of the fact that outdoor concentrations are increasing due to emissions to the atmosphere that outweigh removal.

  “Another key indicator of air quality we addressed is the amount of PM2.5 and we propose the WHO air quality guidelines as a basis for indoor air quality standards but with a 1-hour averaging time, as the 24 hours of the WHO AQG is much longer than people usually spend in public places.”

  Professor Morawska said mechanical ventilation systems should remove and dilute human-emitted and other indoor-generated pollutants at a higher rate than their production so that they would not accumulate in indoor air.

  “The technologies for measuring ventilation already exist in most modern mechanically ventilated buildings but monitoring ventilation rates in terms of clean air delivered to the space requires us to consider the number of people and their activities in the space to ensure adequate IAQ.

  “A practical ventilation standard could be air from outside (assumed to be clean), or clean recirculated air to the entire occupied zone and with airflow not directed from one person to another.

  “Additional measures in support of ventilation, such as air cleaning and disinfection, could greatly reduce the need to increase the outdoor air supply, which carries a heavy energy demand.

  “Filtering recirculated air is an effective way to reduce concentration of, and thus our exposure to, airborne particulate matter, allergens and pathogens.”

  Mandating indoor air quality standards in public buildings was published in Science.

  The expert contributors were  Professor Morawska, Professor Belinda Bennett, and Professor Amanda Kennedy, QUT, Australia; Associate Professor Joseph Allen, Harvard University, USA; Professor William Bahnfleth, The Pennsylvania State University, USA; Professor Philomena M. Bluyssen and Professor Atze Boerstra, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; Professor Giorgio Buonanno, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy; Professor Junji Cao, Chinese Academy of Science, China; Professor Stephanie J. Dancer, Edinburgh Napier University, UK; Professor Andres Floto and Dr Charles Haworth, University of Cambridge, UK; Francesco Franchimon, Franchimon ICM, The Netherlands;  Professor Trish Greenhalgh, University of Oxford, UK;  Jaap Hogeling, International Standards at ISSO, The Netherlands;  Associate Professor Christina Isaxon and Associate Professor Aneta Wierzbicka, Lund University, Sweden;  Professor Jose L. Jimenez and Professor Shelly L. Miller, University of Colorado, USA; Professor Prashant Kumar, University of Surrey, UK; Professor Jarek Kurnitski, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia;  Professor Yuguo Li, University of Hong Kong, China;  Associate Professor Marcel Loomans, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands;  Professor Guy Marks, University of New South Wales;  Professor Linsey C. Marr, Virginia Tech, USA, Professor Livio Mazzarella, Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Professor Arsen Krikor Melikov and Professor Pawel Wargocki, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark;  Professor Donald K. Milton, University of Maryland;  Professor Jason Monty, University of Melbourne, Australia; Associate Professor Peter V. Nielsen, Aalborg University, Denmark; Professor Catherine Noakes, University of Leeds, UK; Professor Jordan Peccia, Yale University, USA; Professor Kimberly A. Prather, University of California, USA; Professor Xavier Querol, Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, Spain; Professor Tunga Salthammer, Fraunhofer WKI, Germany; Professor Chandra Sekhar  and Associate Professor Kwok Wai Tam, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Associate Professor Olli Seppänen, Aalto University Finland;  Professor Shin-ichi Tanabe, Waseda University, Japan; Associate Professor Julian W. Tang, University of Leicester, UK;  Associate Professor Raymond Tellier, McGill University, Canada; Professor Maosheng Yao,, Peking University, China.

  ventilation levels

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adl0677 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Mandating indoor air quality for public buildings

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

28-Mar-2024