Buildings which are too damp or too dry can be bad for occupants’ health. This fact has been well established by many reports including those of the World Health Organisation and the Institute of Medicine.
Yet precisely how bad such buildings are to what kinds of occupants at what level of dampness or dryness is much more difficult to define, as are the agents of illness, such as the many types of mould, bacteria, other irritants and toxins that can result from imbalances of moisture in buildings.
This UK based public report seeks to identify the issues that prevent progress towards a better outcome for occupants, highlights the risks of not addressing these issues in a timely way, and suggests a constructive way forward.
It is the result of an examination of the academic and expert research literature in this subject undertaken over the past year, 2016 – 2017. This research covered several hundred articles and books, and references almost 200 separate studies.
This report was funded by St Gobain through the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings and authored by Neil May, Charles McGilligan and Marcella Ucci.