THE new energy rating directive is great news, the regulations are absolutely essential to improve the quality of the built environment in Ireland. But we mustn't just stop there. The danger with concentrating on one aspect of the building regulations is that you might neglect others, such as healthy building materials and healthy ventilation of building.

The mantra is 'build tight, ventilate right'. We're getting the build tight bit right, but we're not ventilating buildings properly.

And as we seal up buildings more and more, we also store up consequences for our health, such as asthma, the explosion of allergies, sick building syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivity. These conditions are all on the increase and are more likely to occur in highly sealed buildings.

The problems are exacerbated by the fact that we now spend about 90% of our time indoors. This means that our health is determined largely by the buildings we live and work in. As well as using convective heat sources which aren't as good for health, a lot of the new building materials are carcinogenic. And we're using more products - from paints, to glues to the plastics and foam "llings used in furnishings - that contribute to a potentially poisonous environment in terms of air quality. There's a big rise in the use of unregulated chemicals in the building industry and the WWF has said that our use of chemicals and synthetics is basically an uncontrolled global experiment.

There are building regulations dealing with this area, but they need to be continually reassessed to ensure we're keeping them up to date with the latest building methods. But many people, including architects, are not always aware of the health implications of some of the products they're using, so education also needs to be improved.

Even when we build green and use timber in buildings, we shouldn't be complacent. The use of other synthetic materials and sealing with varnishes and modern paints means the ability to passively regulate humidity in a space is often lost. This causes the rise of condensation and an increase in the level of mould.

Mould has been called the asbestos of the '90s. It leads to serious health problems and is caused, in the main, by poorly ventilated spaces and non-breathing walls.

All these changes in our building culture and the type of building materials have adverse health implications, but again, this probably wouldn't be so bad if we weren't inside most of the time and if we ventilated buildings well.

As individuals we don't have much control over the health aspects of the work environment, but we do have control of the homes we live in, so we should ensure our home is a healthy place where we can recuperate.

But even on the work front, numerous studies, particularly in US but also in EU, have shown that healthy buildings, naturally ventilated buildings, lead to greater productivity, less absenteeism, and so, from a commercial point of view, to greater pro"tability for a company.

So it's worth investing in the health aspects of buildings both from a personal point of view as well as from a corporate one.