06 March 2020 | Marino Donati
The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) has updated its Technical Memorandum 40: Health and Wellbeing in Building Services.
CIBSE said it has revised the original TM40, published in 2006, in the light of significant changes to environmental conditions and improved understanding of their impact on health, comfort and cognitive performance.
The document addresses key environmental factors including thermal conditions, humidity, air, light, acoustics, electromagnetic fields and water.
Newer and changing factors addressed by the document include increased evidence of overheating, the impact of pollution on health, how light - including LEDs - affects circadian rhythms, and the impact of high-frequency electromagnetic fields from phones, Wi-Fi and wireless technology.
A big change in the document is the focus on performance outcomes. The latest document summarises existing health-based guidance and regulations and proposes recommended levels for each key environmental parameter. These can then be used as targets in new buildings, fit-outs and refurbishments, or as benchmarks in existing buildings.
CIBSE TM40 acknowledges that health and wellbeing is an evolving subject and that there is still much debate, research and development in numerous areas. To ensure that professionals are aware of the current limits of knowledge, the document has collated these as emerging themes in each chapter of the TM.