Since Canadians spend about 90% of their time inside homes, offices, factories, commercial establishments and other buildings, research on indoor environments affects everyone. With this in mind, NRC (National Research Council Canada) has initiated a national network to link researchers involved in building and health-related disciplines in order to improve the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the built environment.

"Through this network, researchers will share knowledge, develop research priorities, and form alliances to conduct focused research on specific health problems. Chemical and physical pollution of indoor air, mould growth, noise and inadequate lighting may all diminish our well-being and contribute to disease," says Dr. Jennifer Veitch, the network coordinator and a senior research officer at the NRC Institute for Research in Construction. "This new community of researchers will support public policy, codes, standards and guidelines by providing sound scientific knowledge. For example, we may help to formulate checklists for healthful buildings," she suggests.

The idea for a new research network arose because focus groups of industry stakeholders said they wanted more information about the health consequences of different kinds of building conditions. According to the organization’s press release, to kickstart network activities, NRC will host an expert symposium next spring – the first formal face-to-face meeting of Canadian experts from relevant scientific and technical fields. These include medicine, occupational health, epidemiology, physiology, toxicology, chemistry, psychology, public health, architecture and all engineering disciplines.