On 20 February 2013, the Healthvent consortium presented the preliminary conclusions of the project “Health-based ventilation guidelines for Europe”, in the presence of Ms Catherine Stihler MEP and Jacques Remacle, Executive Agency for Health and Consumers.

Camfil welcomes the recommendations made during the workshop, and joins the call for EU action to effectively tackle indoor air pollution and its health implications.

Myriam Tryjefaczka, Sustainable Development manager at Camfil, said that “this report provides new scientific evidence for the debate on indoor air quality and the concluding remarks from the workshop only reiterate the urgent need for EU action in this area”.

This project, funded by the Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs (DG SANCO) is the successor of the EnVie project -1- (2009), and aims to identify solutions to combat indoor air pollution and its impact on human health. In particular, the project has developed new and innovative ventilation guidelines, that take into account the broad range of factors from outdoor air pollution to the energy efficiency of buildings.

The consortium leading the project assessed options which are often complementary to reduce exposure to indoor pollution, with a particular focus on source control and ventilation.

During the workshop, experts pointed out that air cleaning strategies are essential, with adequate design and proper maintenance of ventilation systems, when World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines are not fully complied with.

Current ventilation practices in the EU do not properly address the problems of outdoor/indoor pollution. In addition, there is a lack of harmonisation of national ventilation regulations.

Discussions on preliminary conclusions of the report led to the following policy recommendations:

• Development of an EU harmonised legislation on ventilation;
• Development of EU guidelines on the scope, design, construction, maintenance and inspection of ventilation systems;
• Integration of indoor air quality and energy efficiency legislation, including the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive and Ecodesign;
• Full consideration and integration of indoor air quality issues in the upcoming review of the EU Ambient Air Directive.

In the context of the 2013 year of the air, Camfil calls on the European Commission to develop a Green Paper on indoor air quality to assess the different policy options to fully tackle indoor air pollution.

More details will be available in the full technical report and the summary of key policy recommendations, which will be published before summer 2013 on www.healthvent.eu

The Camfil Group is a world leader in the development and production of air filters and clean air solutions. Camfil is a global company with 29 subsidiaries, 23 production plants and an extensive network of agents in Europe, North America and Asia. Camfil’s products are used in offices, clean rooms for sensitive electronics production, mines, factories, hospitals and nuclear power stations.

For further information, please contact Myriam Tryjefaczka at Camfil via e-mail myriam.tryjefaczka@camfil.fr.