14th May 2021 11:18 am 14th May 2021 11:26 am A team of scientists is calling for a ‘paradigm shift’ in regulations surrounding air quality in buildings to reduce the spread of airborne illnesses. Professor Noakes stands by the side of the ducting in a ventilation system of a large building. Credit: Jude Palmer/Royal Academy of Engineering Science, the analysis was carried out by 40 scientists including Cath Noakes, professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings at Leeds University, and a member of SAGE. According to the group, the shift required to ensure a ‘significantly reduced’ pathogen count in buildings is on the same scale as that of the response to Chadwick’s Sanitary Report in 1842, which led the UK government to organise clean water supplies and centralised sewage systems in cities.