Recent News

Broadening our scope to cover indoor air quality

Over the last few years, the IAQM has received an increasing number of membership applications and general enquiries which explicitly reference indoor air quality. Whilst we have facilitated relevant discussions at our events, currently, the IAQM acts only as the authoritative voice of ambient air with its remit not yet encompassing indoor air quality.

No representative body exists for specialists working in indoor air quality despite mounting interest in the field. The agenda for improving ambient air quality is receiving greater prominence than ever before, however, its indoor counterpart remains poorly understood and underserviced. We believe the IAQM may be well placed to bridge the gap between these often overlapping fields. That’s why we surveyed our members earlier this month to find out how many of them engage with indoor air quality and gauge whether they thought it time for the IAQM to build resilience in this field.

We received a great response from nearly 30% of IAQM members. The respondents showed overwhelming support for the IAQM to extend its remit to indoor air quality, with 86% of respondents in agreement. There was also strong consensus that the IAQM should judge indoor air quality on an equal basis to other air quality experience. Nearly four-fifths of those surveyed indicated that indoor air quality professionals with limited knowledge of ambient air should be entitled to IAQM membership, however, the nature of this membership was split, with no accord for whether they should hold the same or a separate post-nominal.

As a result, the IAQM Committee have agreed to broaden its scope to include indoor air quality and are now seeking volunteers to form a subgroup to inform on the development of the sector and integration of indoor air quality professionals into the membership structure.

Volunteers must have specific indoor air quality experience and be willing to commit to at least four meetings per annum plus additional time for planning. If you are not already on the IAQM Committee, to apply please send a supporting statement (no more than 500 words) and a CV. If you are interested or would like more information, please email Adam Donnan or call the office on +44 (0)20 3862 7484.  The closing date for applications is 23rd August.