air quality Archives - IsoBio Project

Bio-homes to tackle the housing emergency

A new sustainable initiative in Bristol, in the UK, uses bio-based materials to face the need for additional and affordable housing supply

Bristol is at the forefront of high-tech innovation in the UK, named European green capital in 2015. But it is also the second least affordable major British city housing-wise only after London.

Its estimated population is 454,200 people, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Around 10,000 people are registered on the waiting list for a council home. There is a serious housing problem affecting both the young and the old.

To face the emergency, the Knowle West district is testing a new solution that is eco-friendly at the same time. We visited this neighbourhood in the south of Bristol, to discover how a community is trying to make possible a sustainable, affordable housing model using bio-materials.

The initiative, called We Can Make, gathered architects, designers, academics, policy makers, and residents. The result is a prototype house built on the grounds of a community centre, with the cooperation and participation of locals in the construction, plumbing, handmade carved furniture, art, and interior design.

The TAM (Transportable Accommodation Module) was designed and built using bio-materials such as straw, compress straw, and timber. These carbon capturing materials minimise their environmental footprint.

The building is cool in summer and warm in winter, saving hundreds of pounds per month in air conditioning and heating. Actually, as soon as we entered the house, the temperature and the moisture in the environment were right despite the cold weather and rain outside.

According to Dr. Charles Gamble, our guide and head of Innovation at Stramit International, which is part of CooBio company, the TAM uses 90 percent less energy to heat and light when compared to the UK average.

Dr. Charles Gamble, head of Innovation at Stramit International, shows samples of the compressed strawboard panels used in the TAM (By Susan Fourtané)

“The panels are made of compress straw and strawboard framed in timber and covered in clay,” he told youris.com. “Compress straw board has been around for almost 70 years since the technology was invented in Sweden in 1950. The process, also developed in the UK, provided building materials for more than a quarter million houses from the 50s to the 70s after which it became impossible to compete with plasterboard,” he added. These natural retrofitting solutions are also currently being tested at demonstration sites in the UK (Bath) and Spain (Seville) under the EU project Isobio.

Residents who have tested the TAM space overnight have reported that they slept better than usual, which is attributed to a good quality of air in the ambience. External people can rent it through Airbnb, and the income goes to the community centre.

“It’s the breathable nature of the building,” confirmed Finlay White from ModCell, which provided the straw panel systems, when we asked the difference from the traditional Victorian houses in England. “Around the windows in the buildings you don’t get condensation. This is one of the health benefits of using bio-materials,” he explained.

“The mapping of the Knowle West area identified thousands of small plots of land where TAMs could be put to relieve the housing situation for many of the families here who are stuck, because they have no employment or they’re too old. Sometimes you have three or four generations living in a small house,” Gamble said.

“A salary is £23,000 a year. The average price house is 8.4 times that,” added White, while the TAM cost for 36m² is £90,000, with both leasing and hire purchase options.

“What ‘We Can Make’ offers is a model that can be replicated in other regions involving local communities to develop in spaces that they privately own or the council owns, constructing the TAM systems locally to solve housing crisis,” said Gamble.

The team intends to place the houses approximately 200 metres from the community centre, hiring local people to help build the panels creating about 21 jobs in the location.

According to White, there have been identified 1500 potential sites in this area with seven similar more estates in Bristol, and “there are estates like these all over the UK that have the same housing issues.”

A report, We Can Make: civic innovation in housing, was released in October 2017 at the Festival of the Future City in Bristol. The project is in conversation with eight more councils around Britain where TAMs could potentially be built.

By Susan Fourtané

Photo credits: Stramit International

Air conditioning powered by plants

ISOBIO aims to develop new bio-based insulation panels and renders, and to scale them for mainstream adoption by the building and construction industry, but just how much do we actually know about the bio-materials we are proposing to use? ISOBIO researchers have been working on deepening our understanding of these amazing materials

It is well known that plant based materials offer great benefits in the field of construction. They absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, generating oxygen and water in the process, so when incorporated into a building offer the possibility of carbon negative construction. Experience has shown that bio-based materials have the capability to manage the internal air quality passively, producing much more healthy living environments.

Just how this works, and why plant based materials perform so well has been the subject of research for several decades. ISOBIO researchers at the University of Bath in the UK and the University of Rennes 1 in France have been delving deep into the microstructure of plants and have discovered some remarkable characteristics.

These plants have complex interlinked pore structures, designed by nature to transport moisture and nutrients. When incorporated into buildings these same pores not only provide excellent levels of thermal insulation but also buffer moisture, resulting in steady humidity levels in rooms reducing the need for air conditioning.

Plants such as hemp, oil-seed rape, flax, wheat and corn-cob all offer varying degrees of insulation and moisture buffering, and the researchers within the ISOBIO project are developing a detailed understanding of the mechanisms involved and ways to optimise their performance. This understanding is being incorporated into the novel ISOBIO panels and plasters that will be available on the market by the end of the decade.

Is your home healthy? Ask the DNA

Genetic investigations are the latest tool for busting unsafe microorganisms and improving air quality in buildings

Usually associated with humid and sordid slums, mould is a frequent finding in wealthy homes too. Even the fanciest buildings may harbour hot spots where fungi and other microorganisms subtly proliferate, triggering problems that range from unpleasant smells to severe sickness.

Miia Pitkäranta, a Finnish molecular microbiologist, pioneered the use of DNA investigations to identify and study indoor microorganisms during her Ph.D. at the University of Helsinki. She later became a practitioner in the building industry, specialising in indoor air quality.

Pitkäranta is a member of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ) and has contributed to updating the national guidelines on air quality in Finland. youris.com asked her about the fascinating world of microbes in buildings, their impact on our health and how DNA technologies are becoming a tool to improve the air quality of buildings.

Which communities of microorganisms live in our homes and offices? Which of them need more attention?
Of course, it’s okay to find microorganisms in any building. Some come from outdoors, and many are yeasts or bacteria that are symbiotic with the users themselves or their pets. Nobody expects to live in a sterile environment. Problems arise when some microorganisms grow excessively. One of the first signs we look for when we investigate a building is the presence of mould and moisture because they are usually associated with microbial hot spots.

In a dry environment, microbes tend to lay dormant in the dust or on the surfaces. Dust is dirt, but it will go away when you ventilate or clean. Mould and moisture hot spots are entirely different ecosystems. Whereas dust is basically a collection of microorganisms that are already found in our bodies and in the outdoor dust, hot spots contain a few types of filamentous fungi, yeasts and bacteria that proliferate in moisture.

What problems are associated with indoor hotspots?
We have over 100 years of research showing that moisture and mould in buildings correlate with sickness. Many studies have associated them with asthma. I would say that asthma is the most studied symptom because it’s easier to identify. Other warning signs, such as eye irritation or dripping nose are even more widespread, but they are harder to quantify and record. There may be several mechanisms involved: direct toxicity, irritation, allergies.

However, it’s difficult to establish a clear cause and effect relationship, because the symptoms are also common to many other pathologies. Some research has linked moisture and mould to a series of non-specific symptoms: headaches, fatigue, dizziness, neurological or autoimmune disorders. We definitively need more research on the topic.

The term sick building syndrome (or SBS) was once used to include many health conditions linked to living indoors, but SBS is not considered an existing entity anymore. Today we believe there is not one syndrome associated with buildings as such, but rather a wide variety of agents and individual sensitivities that create an array of possible symptoms.

How can DNA be used to identify indoor microbes and what are the advantages?
The standard way to analyse a microbial hot spot is to take samples from it, cultivate the organisms in the laboratory and identify them with a microscope. One problem with cultivation is that you select only those species that can grow in the laboratory, and you lose the majority of the original biodiversity. By looking at the DNA instead, we identify directly which genomes, and therefore which species, are present.

DNA methods are faster than cultivation – they take days instead of weeks – and are non-selective. Another advantage of DNA methods is that they discriminate between single species, whereas with cultivation we usually identify microbes at the genus level, and each genus may include dozens of species. Today we know, for example, there are a lot of interesting species in indoor moulds that were underestimated with cultivation studies. As for any ecosystem, it’s important to know as much as possible about the diversity of species to understand how the community functions.

What is the outlook for these DNA methods?
DNA methods are so sensitive that, in theory, they could detect a mould and moisture hot spot even before it becomes apparent, and I think this is a very exciting prospect. We know that the health problems associated with microbial hot spots develop over time, possibly a couple of years.

By the time a user begins to perceive a mouldy or cellar-like smell (which is a common indicator of mould problem), some health condition could already have occurred. We also tend to get used to odours in our living environment, and we may not notice them until they get really bad. DNA tools are developing at an astonishing speed, but we need more basic research to interpret the findings. When you look at the microbial DNA in a building, there are plenty of background signals you have to deal with.

There is a growing demand for “green” biodegradable materials in buildings. Do you see any challenge regarding their interaction with microorganisms?
It’s astonishing to look at the diversity of building materials available today. Many are eco-friendly, which is a good thing. However, biodegradable materials, by definition, are easily spoiled by microorganisms, and that is why they are treated with various types of preservatives. It’s assumed that such treatments make materials resistant to microorganism attacks, but the question is: for how long? A building is expected to last many decades, and I think we need to get better knowledge about what kind of microbial community can develop in these materials in the long run.

Over time and given the right conditions, organisms may become tolerant of preservatives or break them down into other compounds. For example, during the 1950’s and up to the 1970’s many Scandinavian buildings were made with wood treated with pentachlorophenol (PCP) as a preservative. The industry believed that this treatment would withstand microbial attacks for the entire life span of the buildings, but today we see mould species that can break down PCP into compounds called chloroanisoles.

The process is slow and subtle; the wood does not look spoiled at all, but just a couple of nanograms of chloroanisoles per cubic metre are enough to produce a terrible mould or cork smell. We need to make sure that we are not going to see such phenomenon with today’s green materials in a couple of decades or so.

By Sergio Pistoi

Photo credits: Ivan Bachev

10 April 2017

When indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air

“Besides the contaminants we find outside, we also have indoor contaminants. There are pollutants typical of homes such as dust, spores, moulds, and those produced by human activities like cooking and house-cleaning, that contribute to the release of additional damaging substances,” expert warns

Indoor air pollution kills 4.3 million people globally every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The main causes are heating and cooking practices that produce high levels of toxic substances, such as fine particles and carbon monoxide.

Doctor Alessandro Miani, heads-up the non-profit Italian Society for Environmental Medicine (SIMA), which recently drew up a set of rules to preserve the air we breathe in our homes and offices. Miani, who is also professor of hygiene and environmental prevention at the University of Milan, discusses environmental medicine and the need for public health strategies to tackle indoor air pollution.

Professor Miani, the last WHO report shows that indoor air may be more harmful to health than outdoor air. Can you explain how this happens?
Indoor air is basically the same as outdoor air, but the difference lies in the amounts and types of contaminants. Indeed, besides the contaminants we find outside, we also have indoor contaminants. There are pollutants typical of homes such as dust, spores, moulds, and those produced by human activities like cooking and house-cleaning, which contribute to the release of additional damaging substances.

What’s the aim of the rules laid out in the SIMA Indoor Air Quality document?
In Italy, while for outdoor air there are laws that regulate the subject matter, there is no comprehensive set of rules that govern indoor pollution. Of course individual citizens should also convincingly adopt their own virtuous behaviours because the environment does not belong to states and governments, but to each one of us.

One way to improve indoor air quality is using biobased construction materials. For example, the European Isobio project is studying natural materials, like hemp and straw. By “breathing”, they offer better ventilation and help reduce damp. What benefits could this field of research provide?
There are no doubts that bioarchitecture and bioconstructions can contribute to improving the overall well-being of those who spend a lot of time indoors, and can offer practical help to improving the energy efficiency of buildings.

All this has a positive effect on the amount of harmful emissions from the heating systems of our homes, which are the biggest source of thin particulates in large towns. Moreover, there are many other entrepreneurial initiatives that, thanks to new compounds, are seeking to improve air quality. New green roof tiles and a new antismog paint are some examples.

What is meant by environmental medicine?
Environmental medicine deals with prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disorders that may be related to “environmental factors”. This is a sector that encompasses various disciplines such as biomedical sciences, environmental sciences, legal sciences, economic science, social and political science, material sciences, and construction science.

Environmental medicine may be considered to be the medical branch of the much broader field of environmental health, which, in turn, is a part of public health. It is not very well known in Italy, but it has been explored by WHO and is a common concern in the US.

Even though it is a fundamental issue for our health, it seems there is not enough attention to environmental medicine in the media of your country, Italy. Are there sensitivities around these issues?
The media need information that has been verified and certified, and this type of information can be provided only by associations and bodies that have strong ties with research and science. Releasing information through the media about initiatives aimed at informing the people or that intend to be a stimulus for politicians and institutions, requires players who are credible and well-known.

So I don’t think it is about hurting “sensitivities” but rather about the fact that so far the few people who have dealt with this issue before us, have restricted themselves to a specialised medical approach. Environmental medicine is instead a multidisciplinary field, aimed at preserving human health and at avoiding that our surroundings may become an environmental factor that causes diseases, injuries and premature death.

By Elena Veronelli

Photo credits: Joshua Ness

23 January 2017