Every classroom in Galway should be given a HEPA filter, while all workplaces must monitor air quality with filters and CO2 monitors.
This is the view of PBP Galway representative, Adrian Curran, who was speaking following the Government’s decision not to oppose The Workplace Ventilation Bill 2021.
The Bill, sponsored by People Before Profit TD, Paul Murphy, will give workers a legal ‘right to clean air’ through imposing minimum ventilation standards in workplaces, based around CO2 levels. The Bill is proceeding to the committee stage, where it will be further examined, and where amendments may be introduced.
‘Empowering workers’
The Bill creates minimum fresh air standards, defining clean air as having fewer than 900 ppm of CO2 - and puts the onus on employers to achieve this by whatever means possible and/or to install air filtration.
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Employers would still also be subject to existing health and safety laws on minimum standards of heating for a comfortable workplace. The rationale for doing this is that almost every building where people gather, aside from private homes, is someone’s workplace.
The Bill also empowers the Health and Safety Authority to measure clean air in the workplace and to issue improvement or prohibition notices as appropriate - similar to what happens to restaurants that breach food safety rules.
It empowers workers to request that the HSA carry out an inspection of the air in their workplace. This aims to address a major flaw in existing health and safety legislation, namely that it is solely up to the HSA which workplaces it chooses to inspect.
‘Rapid implementation’
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PBP Galway representative, Adrian Curran [pictured above], has welcomed the Government’s decision not to oppose the Bill. He said rapid implementation is now key, and that the Government must also help schools and workplaces implement proper ventilation.
“We cannot simply let this bill sit on a shelf gathering dust. It must be progressed and implemented rapidly,” he said. “Every classroom should be given a HEPA filter, as has been done in other countries. All workplaces must be monitoring air quality with CO2 monitors and using HEPA filters and improved ventilation where appropriate, and the Government should provide support to small businesses to do that where necessary.”
