Victoria's new 'clean air' project could help end the COVID pandemic and boost productivity

After several Australian water polo players tested positive for COVID in Paris last week, Olympics officials were pressed for details on how they would be mitigating viral transmission at the summer games. A collaboration between the Burnet Institute, the Victorian Government and several other research partners, the Pathway to Clean Indoor Air in Victoria will also lay the groundwork for indoor air quality standards — recommended limits on pollutants that don't just make us sick, but stop us thinking clearly and working productively. Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawksa, a renowned atmospheric physicist at Queensland University of Technology and one of the Pathway to Clean Indoor Air's research partners, said improving indoor air quality needn't be an expensive exercise. Though people in urban locations spend 90 per cent of their time inside, she said, most countries don't have legislated indoor air quality standards, and most building codes don't address airborne disease transmission. "The biggest obstacle in most countries is where this sits in the regulatory system," Professor Morawksa told ABC News — who is responsible for clean indoor air.