Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality is an overlooked component of public health. Improving ventilation, filtration, air cleaning, and monitoring can reduce transmission of respiratory infections while also protecting people from pollutants and other airborne hazards. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have worked closely with Paula Olsiewski to advance indoor air quality as a public health priority.
Model Clean Indoor Air Act
The Model Clean Indoor Air Act translates decades of research on ventilation, filtration, and air cleaning into practical standards for healthier indoor spaces. Developed with experts in public health, engineering, and policy, the model legislation provides a framework that states and communities can adapt to improve indoor air quality in schools, workplaces, and other public buildings. It focuses on measurable improvements—including ventilation, filtration, air quality monitoring, and technologies such as germicidal ultraviolet light—to reduce exposure to respiratory viruses, wildfire smoke, allergens, and other airborne hazards. The goal is to make healthy indoor air a basic part of public health infrastructure, much as clean water and food safety standards are today.
Why the Model Clean Indoor Air Act is Important
This Viewpoint discusses how poor indoor air quality can affect health and examines the Model State Indoor Air Quality Act, which provides science-based regulatory standards aimed at ensuring public indoor environments provide healthy air.
Gostin, Lawrence O ; Hodge, James G ; Gronvall, Gigi K | Chicago: American Medical Association | JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, 2023-10, Vol.330 (16), p.1525-1526
Breaking Down Silos: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Mitigate Indoor Airborne Pathogen Transmission
Zhu, Alex ; Bahnfleth, William P. ; Bruns, Richard ; Buonanno, Giorgio ; Fisman, David ; Gregory, Cria O. ; Haas, Charles N. ; Jones, Benjamin ; Kumagai, Kazukiyo ; Lagoudas, Georgia K. ; Li, Yuguo ; Linder, Alexander ; Milton, Donald ; Morawska, Lidia ; Olesen, Scott W. ; Olsiewski, Paula ; Radonovich, Lew ; Wargocki, Pawel ; Gronvall, Gigi K. | Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications | Addressing indoor air quality (IAQ) is essential for reducing respiratory disease risks. In this commentary, we highlight the need for increased connections between typically siloed engineering and health disciplines to tackle remaining IAQ knowledge gaps that, if closed, would enhance IAQ applications and health. We provide actionable insights for policymakers, building designers, and funding agencies, recommending multidisciplinary research to support (1) increasing understanding of the complex and multifactorial variables in human infection, (2) using physical and mathematical models to understand disease transmission, and (3) determining the effectiveness of layered interventions in different environments. Addressing these knowledge gaps will help in the delivery of cost-effective IAQ solutions that reduce infectious disease risks in workplaces, schools, homes, and other indoor environments. Health security, 2026-02, Vol.24 (1), p.7-14
Far UVC Technology and Germicidal Ultraviolet Energy: Policy and Research Review for Indoor Air Quality and Disease Transmission Control
Linder, Alexander G. ; Zhu, Alex W. ; Bruns, Richard ; Olsiewski, Paula ; Gronvall, Gigi K. | Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications | Far ultraviolet-C (UVC) is an emerging, flexible technology for indoor air disinfection with the potential to reduce airborne transmission of pathogens while maintaining safety for human tissues. Despite its high efficacy to neutralize a wide range of pathogens and safety for human tissues, implementation of far UVC is hampered by regulatory gaps, consumer uncertainty, and unanswered research questions surrounding the formation and interaction of generated ozone and volatile oxidative byproducts. This commentary describes targeted recommendations for both epidemic—where rapid far-UVC deployment and ability to counter a wide variety of pathogens in balanced with potential environmental impacts on the indoor environment—and long term implementation scenarios, highlighting the need for human health risk studies, regulatory guidance for fa- UVC devices, and real-world cost benefit analyses, which consider the tradeoffs long term of far UVC and germicidal ultraviolet implementation. Far-UVC technologies demonstrate an exciting opportunity to promote the benefits of germicidal UV disinfection to more indoor spaces. More research is needed, however, to ensure its safe and equitable use and development. This work was in part informed by a workshop held by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which convened experts from academia, government, and industry to evaluate the scientific and policy considerations for far UVC, comparing the new technology to traditional germicidal ultraviolet. Health security, 2026-02, Vol.24 (1), p.47-54