Reducing the DALY Tally Through IAQ Improvements

Nick Agopian, VP of Sales & Marketing at RenewAire, and Paul Raymer, Chief Investigator at Heyoka Indoor Solutions LLC, joined Tyler Kern for the third installment of their focus on indoor air quality (IAQ) best practices for the home with a fascinating look at improving disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). No one likes to dwell on life’s end, but enhancing one’s lifespan is worth pondering, and a pondering Raymer and Agopian went.

“You want to live a healthy life up until the last moment,” Raymer said. “DALYs are a way of evaluating diseases in populations that impact the healthy life of people, so that if your life expectancy is, let’s say, 100 years, but the last ten years of that, you’re in a wheelchair, those are disability-affected life years.”

In terms of indoor air quality, there are many issues proven to affect people’s health from unconditioned air. Air pollutants contribute to a host of disorders that the European Union (EU) estimates equal more than 2 million DALY years. The EU is not alone in this research either. Experts contend that the cumulative effects of poor IAQ will lower life expectations. Clearly, overall health should be taken very seriously.

And it’s not just health and wellness that is impacted by ventilation; it also can affect cognition and productivity. Eating healthier diets and exercising are often steps people take to extend their life, but IAQ may play an even more vital role. For instance, cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, asthma, COPD, upper and lower respiratory infections, and acute CO toxication are illnesses and diseases that are linked to poor ventilation. Researchers at Berkley Lab even found that poor ventilation hurts learning and test-taking, claiming SAT test scores rose by 18% with better IAQ in schools.

It’s clear that air quality should be considered a key factor in a holistic health approach. And unlike the other health trends, ventilation will save you money after a certain amount of time. For Agopian, he believes wholly that “ventilation is life and … a no brainer.”

Recent Episodes

As the construction industry faces a significant workforce shortage projected to surpass half a million workers, the need to inspire and educate the next generation about the value of construction careers is more critical than ever. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), the U.S. construction industry needs to attract 501,000 additional workers…

For HVAC businesses, mastering online visibility and reputation management has become a critical factor in achieving success. With the internet increasingly becoming the first stop for customers seeking services, the practice of digital marketing for the HVAC industry has been gaining traction. Chris Lollini, founder and CEO of Reputation Igniter, specializes in helping businesses…

A career evolution in HVAC takes many paths filled with challenges and opportunities for significant growth, from technical roles to leadership. As the sector evolves, professionals must adapt and expand their skill sets to thrive in increasingly complex environments. In this episode of Straight Outta Crumpton, host Greg Crumpton engages with Tim Gillespie, the…