Post Category Indoor Air Quality

The COVID-19 pandemic brought attention to the importance of indoor air quality and ushered in new guidance on higher ventilation rates to help with infection risk reduction. As the pandemic eased, questions emerged on the benefits of these higher outdoor air ventilation rates beyond disease transmission. To investigate this, we leveraged a unique opportunity to […]

In this TED Talk, Dr. Joseph Allen, Associate Professor and the Director of the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, opens by asking the audience to take a long, slow, deep breath, and think about their “Indoor Age”. The average person spends 90% of their life inside. To find our […]

The Los Angeles (LA) wildfires in January 2025 had a profound impact on air quality throughout the region. Smoke from wildfires can penetrate into our homes even when windows and doors are closed. It poses serious health risks given the significant amount of time we spend in our homes. The Harvard Healthy Buildings team worked […]

Flood events continue to occur globally, causing severe impacts on our economy, environment, and society. Floods are well known for their devastating immediate effects, but what often goes unnoticed is the negative impact they have on indoor environments. Specifically, the growth of mold spores post-flood poses significant respiratory health challenges. There has been a lack […]

Urban wildfires, like those in the Bay Area (2020), Boulder (2021), Lahaina (2023), and L.A. (2025), bring a devastating loss of life, homes, schools, businesses, and community. Urban wildfires release a mix of pollutants that can impact lung health, brain health, heart health, and immune system health. The impacts extend far beyond the immediate fire […]

In March 2020, the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program completed data collection for the Global CogFx study, an international, one-year study of indoor environmental quality and office worker health and productivity. This week, the first of several papers analyzing data from the Global CogFx study was published.  This first paper evaluated how building operations impacted indoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations […]

Portable Air Cleaners: Selection and Application Considerations for COVID-19 Risk Reduction The Harvard Healthy Buildings Program published a report on the selection and application considerations of Portable Air Cleaners (PACs) for COVID-19 risk reduction. Engineering controls and Healthy Buildings measures are a key component of the “hierarchy of controls” that should be used in a […]

There is great disparity in the way we think about and address different sources of environmental infection. Governments have for decades publicized legislation and invested in food safety, sanitation, and drinking water for public health purposes. However, airborne pathogens and respiratory infections, whether seasonal influenza or COVID-19, are addressed fairly weakly, if at all, in […]

The Global CogFx study, a research project conducted among 302 office workers in six countries (China, India, Mexico, Thailand, the UK and the US) aims to understand the effects of indoor air pollution on cognitive performance. Our paper published today shows the significant acute effects of PM2.5 and ventilation on cognitive test performance. These findings add […]