The Global Open Air Quality Standards (GO AQS) held its 1st General Assembly Webinar across two sessions on December 11, 2025, bringing together international experts and academics to discuss foundational steps and future directions for Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) worldwide. The sessions highlighted a consensus that IAQ must fundamentally shift from being a marginalized technical detail to a primary public health concern, supported by unified metrics, innovative technology, and strong governance.
The GO AQS initiative itself is supported by 170 people from 34 countries, including 52 academics and 118 experts. The organization published its Version 1.0 white paper, establishing three main pillars: tailored air quality limits (Starter and Ultimate tiers), the IAQ score, and IAQ policies.
IAQ as a Public Health and Human Right
A core theme resonating across both sessions was the need to firmly establish IAQ as a public health priority and a fundamental human right.
Dr. Maria Neira, Director of Environment, Climate Change and Health at the WHO, emphasized that air quality is a basic human right that the global community must fight for, similar to access to safe water and sanitation. She noted that air pollution impacts health beyond the respiratory system, as pollutants enter the bloodstream and can reach any organ in the body. Accelerating the transition to clean energy is therefore a public health issue.
certainly air quality is the basic human right. We all need to fight for it.
Prof. Pawel Wargocki presented “The Great Nine” steps necessary to increase IAQ awareness and stressed that IAQ must be considered a public health issue, viewing it at least as a modifier of health effects. Prof. Wargocki advocated for changing the negative narrative around IAQ to a “salutogenic” approach, focusing on the positive benefits and improved quality of life to increase public demand. He also argued that improving IAQ could support decarbonization by reducing the carbon footprint of healthcare services.
improving health of people by improving IAQ can actually reduce carbon footprint because that will reduce the carbon footprint from the health medical treatments and healthcare that is considered to be responsible for up to 5% of all the carbon emissions.
Similarly, Ir. Lula Timmerman from the Federal Public Service Health in Belgium explained that IAQ is a public health issue because people spend over 85% of their time indoors, influencing population-level health and cognitive performance. She pointed out that Belgium has integrated IAQ into a formal public health framework with a 2022 law that introduces reference values as public health norms.
indoor air quality is not only a technical or an engineering topic. It is at its core a public health issue.
Although unable to speak due to last minute issues, slides shared by Dr. Gaetano Settimo, Coordinator of the National Indoor Air Study Group in Italy, reinforced this policy message, stating that indoor air quality must stop being treated as a minor issue. He insisted that primary prevention must be important, guiding health policy and regulation, and policymakers need to create strong institutional governance and accountability structures.
Is indoor air quality the icing on the cake? No!!! is one of the main ingredients of the cake.
Prof. Bronwyn King detailed the launch of the Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air at the UN, which calls upon governments to prioritize IAQ based on six pillars, including human rights, climate resilience, and pandemic preparedness. Montenegro and France were the first two countries to sign this global pledge.
…it was enormously helpful to hear some really inspiring stories and to share some of those challenges and frustrations and I feel so much stronger after the IAQ UN event. I feel like together we’re so much more powerful.
Prof. Juliana Jalaludin noted that Malaysia faces a dual pollution challenge due to rapid urbanization, affecting both outdoor air (from traffic emission, industrial activities, and recurring transboundary haze) and indoor air quality. Indoor air problems, such as mold, dust, chemical pollutants, and poor ventilation, are particularly harmful, especially in schools. Recognizing that children spend most of their time indoors, making their environmental health a top priority under Malaysia’s National Environmental Health Action Plan, an indoor environmental quality action plan was developed. This plan offers clear guidance on monitoring indoor air, controlling pollutants like mold, dust, and VOCs, and improving ventilation in educational spaces.
Prof. Jalaludin stressed that adopting global standards locally helps reduce children’s exposure to pollutants, improves their academic outcomes, and promotes sustainable school environments.
Clean air is a fundamental right for children with growing lungs and developing bodies breathing in polluted air can cause long-term harm.
Operationalizing Standards and Data
Experts highlighted the urgent need for comprehensive IAQ measurement and governance frameworks to turn scientific consensus into actionable outcomes.
Dr. Iyad Al-Attar proposed a four-pillar plan for reconfiguring the air quality quest, noting that global exposure to poor air quality has actually risen to 99% despite recent efforts. His plan centered on holistic monitoring (outdoor, indoor, personal, and filter performance) and the implementation of dynamic response systems (HVAC and filtration systems) that rapidly respond to variations in IAQ, occupancy, and building activity. Dr. Al-Attar strongly urged stakeholders to prioritize public health and well-being over energy efficiency, challenging the audience to spend energy to save lives when necessary.
I think it’s maybe time now to allow public health and well-being to be on the driver’s seat. Not neglecting energy efficiency, but if there is a case where I need to spend the energy to save lives, I would do so.
For this health-focused shift to work, Prof. Wargocki insisted that a standardized IAQ metric must be agreed upon and widely deployed to benchmark buildings. Dr. Maria Figols affirmed this, stressing that continuous monitoring is a fundamental requirement for effectively applying a health-based standard like GO AQS, as long-term averages might obscure harmful short-term peaks. Her work focuses on integrating the GO AQS score into real-time monitoring solutions to translate complex pollutant data into a single, understandable indicator that enables automated ventilation and filtration adjustments.
creating a a full chain from continuous monitoring to health based interpretation and that takes us to automated action and that is why what takes GO AQS frame in into real operational buildings.
This pursuit of unified data and modeling was echoed by research experts:
Asst. Prof. Christos D. Argyropoulos emphasized the utility of computational models, like computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multiszone models, in making useful predictions about airflow and contaminant dispersion, which is crucial for developing mitigation strategies. He noted that collaboration with GO AQS helps compare numerical results with standardized limits and thresholds.
tools like computational flow dynamics can help us understand how the pollutants can be dispersed inside to to buildings.
Jose Fermoso Domínguez shared that the European project K-HealthinAIR adopted the GO AQS methodology for data analysis, praising it as a unified and rigorous framework for assessing IAQ across diverse environments like homes, schools, and hospitals. He added that while GO AQS provides a robust view, it must be paired with targeted sampling of specialized pollutants (like PAHs) to provide a complete picture.
We think that applying GO AQS within K-HealthinAIR has helped us to turn indirect quality data into into something meaningful, comparable, actionable and useful for improving people’s daily lives.
Addressing Implementation and Hidden Pollutants
The webinars covered challenges regarding actual implementation in buildings and the need to recognize all pollutants, especially the smallest ones.
Andrew Guido shared findings from testing existing residential model homes in the US and Canada against the ASHRAE Standard 241 equivalent clean air flow requirements. He found that three homes built above code standards failed the test, leading to three key takeaways: code compliance does not equate to 241 compliance; achieving the standard requires both ventilation and filtration; and rigorous validation and commissioning are non-negotiable.
code compliant does not mean 241 compliant.
Nathan Wood stressed that most construction decisions are driven by minimum regulatory codes, ignoring occupant health. He labeled ventilation as one of the most cost-effective health interventions available and argued that low-cost monitors are helping to drive awareness and breed a new sector focused on optimizing indoor environments.
ventilation is probably one of the most cost effective health interventions that we can do.
Prof. Sotiris Vardoulakis focused on the threat posed by the increasing airtightness of buildings—a necessary measure for energy efficiency—which concentrates indoor-generated pollutants and intensifies their impact on health.
we need to make sure that…we build tide but we also ventilate right and and we also filtrate right to protect human health in the building environment
This necessity for balancing energy and IAQ was framed by Asst. Prof. Giorgos Panaras as a major research challenge, noting that theEnergy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) offers a good platform but requires innovative solutions like AI control supported by effective simulation tools.
as engineers what we need to do we try to compromise the cost with the accuracy and that is a very difficult balance
Finally, the discussion turned to pollutants often overlooked:
Heike Krüger, Chairwoman of the Nano Control Foundation, warned about the danger of ultrafine particles (PM0.1). She cited instances where long-term exposure to printer-emitted particles (PEPs) caused serious illness and announced collaboration with GO AQS to develop international standards to limit ultra-fine particles below 1,000 particles per cubic centimeter.
PM0.1 is perhaps the quietest of all pollutants.
The overall consensus, powerfully summarized by Dr. Pedro Branco, is that the “elephant in the room” is the fragmentation among the science, policy, and practice sectors. He argued that IAQ failure is often due to broken connections between these three worlds, and initiatives like GO AQS are vital for creating the strong channels necessary for knowledge transfer and educating policymakers.
IAQ failure is not only because of technical or technological constraints. It’s also because of these broken connections between these three worlds.
A Unified Thank You
To Our Speakers: Your generous contribution of time, expertise, and cutting-edge insights formed the foundation of this event. Your presentations were truly inspiring and have provided our global community with a clear roadmap for advancing IAQ.
To Our Attendees: Your active participation, thoughtful questions in the chat, and enthusiasm were essential. Your engagement created a vibrant and productive forum, reinforcing the importance of international collaboration in this critical field.
Resources
Download the presentation here.
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