Presentation in Healthy Building 2023 Europe
As a halfway point celebration of our Healthy Building Database -project, some of its already reached results were presented at the #HB2023Europe conferecene in Aachen, Germany, June 2023.
Healthy Building database
The results are based on the statistical analysis of the extensive indoor environment data gathered from hundreds of comprehensive buildings moisture and condition assessments (MCA) of public Finnish buildings. These MCAs were made according to Finnish authority guides and for example the structures and their conditions have been inspected by structural openings and material samples. Currently, the database consists of tens of thousands of technical measurements and samples (microbes, man-made mineral fibres, volatile organic compounds, …). The project is funded by Sirate Group Ltd and the Finnish Work Environment Fund. It is made in co-operation with Healthy Premises 2028 program led by several ministries and the Prime minister’s office (Finland).
Statistically significant results
The most important result was the statistically significant difference between the ability to detect severe mould damages by visual inspections and by comprehensive MCAs. Although the result was not a surprise, it has a great significance on indoor environment quality (IEQ) related scientific research. In a great deal of these studies buildings are incorrectly classified as damaged or reference buildings, based on just those visual inspections. However, as a more surprising results, there was no statistical difference in the prevalence of the severe mould and moisture damages assessments made due to an IEQ problem or without it.
A significant result at the national level was the observed statistically significant difference between four Finnish accredited laboratories in the analysis of man-made mineral fibres.
Further information
The results are reported as a full text in the forthcoming proceedings of the conference. For further information, please contact the project leader Vesa Koskinen (vesa.koskinen@sirategroup.fi).
Experiences from the conference
”In international conferences such as HB and Indoor Air, it is interesting to see how different IAQ problems are worldwide compared with the ones we have in Finland. In these conferences, usually several excellent studies and ongoing projects concerning indoor air quality measurements (CO2, %RH, VOC, PM2.5 and PM10) for example in schools have been presented.
What it comes to Finland, almost all our school buildings are mechanically ventilated (not always properly balanced or not working ideally) and the concentrations of above-mentioned impurities are usually very low… And still in several cities, a significant number (at worst up to 25 %) of schoolchildren have to study in temporary spaces due to indoor air problems. Usually, these IAQ problems are (justifiably or not) associated with moisture and mould damages or sometimes with man-made mineral fibres.
I hope and believe that our database project would offer some useful new information at least these national IAQ problems.”