Limited nighttime ventilation in NZ homes may point to an “under-recognised” public health issue, a study published today has found.<\/p>\n
Researchers looked at 20 Wellington houses and found many of them exceeded the target CO2 concentration of 800ppm, raising room temperatures and humidity.<\/p>\n
Peak concentrations were above 2000ppm in half the bedrooms studied, and one had a maximum of more than 8000ppm.<\/p>\n
The study, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, showed poor ventilation can impact sleep quality as well as performance the following day, affecting productivity and awareness.<\/p>\n
“Increasing ventilation through window or door opening are associated with small but measurable improvements in sleep quality and efficiency, as well as next-day performance,” the authors from the University of Otago and Earth Sciences NZ said.<\/p>\n
Respiratory conditions such as asthma can also be worsened by stuffy houses, as stale air increases the likelihood of the development of mould, bacteria and dust. <\/p>\n
Newer houses ‘worse’<\/p>\n
This was found to be more common in newer builds, as older, more “leaky” homes have more natural ventilation. <\/p>\n
The study, carried out in winter and spring, made recommendations for how we can improve air quality in our homes, saying: “Practical strategies to reduce overnight CO2 concentrations include increasing natural ventilation (eg opening windows or doors), ensuring vents are unobstructed.”<\/p>\n
However, it still may not be enough, as opening windows cannot control humidity or temperatures that are compatible with healthy sleep.<\/p>\n
There are no current frameworks in building codes that discuss ventilation requirements, which indicates that the findings of the study may be reflected across the country, the researchers said. <\/p>\n
Mechanical ventilation systems are recommended, but costs to install and operate them aren’t always suitable for homeowners or houses.<\/p>\n
The study said more work is needed to look at solutions that could improve overnight bedroom airflow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Limited nighttime ventilation in NZ homes may point to an “under-recognised” public health issue, a study published today…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,134,687,43,40,38,41,39,52],"class_list":["post-495438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-housing-and-infrastructure","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}