About

Good quality indoor air is critical for good health. Australians spend 90 per cent of their time indoors – in the home, office, or other types of buildings – where airborne particles, gases, chemicals, mould, and other pollutants can cause headaches, eye irritation, allergies, and fatigue. Serious pollutants can cause certain types of cancers and other long-term health complications.

Supplying clean air through a building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems can prevent many environmental health hazards such as asthma. According to Asthma Australia, asthma affects one in nine Australians (around 2.7 million people).

About the conference

The Indoor Air Quality Conference 2024 will be held in Melbourne from July 15–16.

The purpose of this conference is to provide AIRAH members and the broader industry with a platform for discussing issues related to indoor air quality (IAQ). The major theme of the conference is exploring new and emerging technologies to better understand the science of indoor air quality (IAQ).

Key topics

• The role of building operation on human health and wellbeing
• Mega-trends and indoor air quality
  • Urbanisation and the consequences for indoor environmental quality (IEQ)
  • Climate change and indoor climate
    • Bushfires, floods, and other severe weather events
• Sustainable and healthy buildings
  • Energy efficiency
  • Intelligent design and solutions
• Indoor Air Pollutants – Sources, Pathways, Monitoring and Management
  • Sources
    • Physio-chemical pollutants - (e.g., volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, allergens, radon, carbon monoxide)
      • Material emissions
      • Outdoor / indoor interface
      • Indoor air chemistry
    • Microbial pollutants – (e.g. mould, bacteria, biofilms, Legionella, Aspergillus, other building-borne pathogens, MVOC’s, biotoxins)
      • Surface contamination, air quality
        • Emission causes – dampness, plumbing failure, poor maintenance, construction / demolition / maintenance
        • Understanding the microbiomes of buildings
        • Outdoor / indoor interface
  • Pathways
  • Monitoring and management
• Regulation, standards (National and International), policy, guidelines, education
  • World's best practice
  • IAQ and impacts on insurance
  • Compliance and enforcement challenges
• Occupant behaviour and lifestyle
  • The role of occupant behaviour in indoor air quality
  • Educational and behavioural interventions to promote better IAQ practices

Key dates

AIRAH is committed to the health and safety of our members, guests, and staff. Our aim is to use only COVID-safe venues and ensure that a range of protocols and enhanced hygiene measures are in place to safeguard your health and wellbeing. This includes compliance with any commonwealth, state, or territory health orders about density limits, vaccination requirements, or mask wearing.

Please view our face-to-face events guide for information on attending AIRAH events.

We request you stay home if you are unwell or have COVID-19 symptoms including cough, fever, sore throat, fatigue, loss of smell or taste, vomiting, diarrhoea, or shortness of breath.

Please do not attend the event if you have been in contact with a confirmed case.

For more information on AIRAH’s response to COVID-19, please visit airah.org.au/coronavirus