Why Indoor Air Needs the Same Rules as Drinking Water | Prof. Lidia Morawska

We don't check the water coming out of our taps. We don't question the food on supermarket shelves. Both are regulated, and we trust them. So why is the air inside our buildings, where we spend more than 90% of our time, still voluntary? In this episode of the Indoor Air Quality Webinar Series 2026, Joe Scholz (QED) and Dr Dominique Hes talk with Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska of QUT. She is one of the world's leading air quality scientists and has represented Australia on the World Health Organization's air quality guidelines. Lidia talks about: How the 2021 WHO guidelines brought ultrafine particles into focus for the first time Why roughly half of indoor particle pollution comes from outdoors Why no country yet has continuous, performance-based indoor air monitoring, and why Australia could lead Voluntary building ratings vs mandatory standards, and why voluntary schemes can't be the end goal QUT's P Block retrofit: putting a monitor in every room so an existing building can meet the proposed standards and run itself Why the science is the easy part and integration, data security and awareness are the hard part Chapters 00:00 From nuclear physics to air quality 03:27 What the WHO guidelines mean for building owners 06:15 Ultrafine particles explained 08:38 How Australia compares internationally 12:13 Voluntary or mandatory? 14:35 Monitoring every room: the QUT P Block project 18:40 Inside the THRIVE project 22:00 The science is the easy part Presented by QED and Geronimo Advisory. QED is Australia's only NATA-accredited provider of Indoor Air Quality inspections and NABERS Indoor Environment ratings. qed.com.au #IndoorAirQuality #IAQ #BuildingHealth #FacilitiesManagement #NABERS #HealthyBuildings