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Air Quality Matters

Air Quality Matters

By: Simon Jones
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Air Quality Matters inside our buildings and out.

This Podcast is about Indoor Air Quality, Outdoor Air Quality, Ventilation, and Health in our homes, workplaces, and education settings.

And we already have many of the tools we need to make a difference.

The conversations we have and how we share this knowledge is the key to our success.

We speak with the leaders at the heart of this sector about them and their work, innovation and where this is all going.

Air quality is the single most significant environmental risk we face to our health and wellbeing, and its impacts on us, our friends, our families, and society are profound.

From housing to the workplace, education to healthcare, the quality of the air we breathe matters.

Air Quality Matters


© 2025 Air Quality Matters Nature & Ecology Science
Episodes
  • The Celtic Tiger's Toxic Legacy: How Rapid Construction Baked Dampness Into Irish Homes - #OT48

    The Celtic Tiger's Toxic Legacy: How Rapid Construction Baked Dampness Into Irish Homes - #OT48
    Jun 18 2026
    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
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    11 mins
  • Catch Me If You Can: Why We're Always One Step Behind the Next Pathogen - #OT47

    Catch Me If You Can: Why We're Always One Step Behind the Next Pathogen - #OT47
    Jun 11 2026
    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
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    9 mins
  • Beyond Grants and Targets: The Human Side of Retrofitting 500,000 Irish Homes

    Beyond Grants and Targets: The Human Side of Retrofitting 500,000 Irish Homes
    Jun 8 2026
    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
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    1 hr and 38 mins
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