During Climate Week this year, attendees to the United Nations Assembly in New York announced a new Global Commission to drive action on healthy indoor air.

Among the global commissioners is Scotland’s Dr Sally Witcher OBE. She tells healthandcare.scot that she hopes to see Scotland’s leaders work together to ensure healthier indoor air becomes a reality.

The Founder and Director of Edinburgh-based social enterprise Inclusive New Normal, Dr Sally Witcher OBE is commited to driving inclusivity in policy and practice around clean air in the wake of the world attempting to ‘build back better’ following COVID-19.

Dr Witcher will join more than 150 leaders from 30 countries, including a former US Surgeon General, global health authorities, senior scientists and researchers from leading universities as part of the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air.

Set to meet for the first time in November, the aim of the Commission is to elevate indoor air as a ‘critical public health priority’ and develop coordinated global action and solutions.

Dr Witcher said:

“I’m deeply honoured and excited to join an incredible group of global leaders dedicated to taking this forward.”

Led by the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a public benefit corporation and global authority for transforming health and wellbeing in buildings, organizations and communities, the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air aims to be an ‘engine driving global action’.

IWBI President and CEO Rachel Hodgdon said:

“We’re thrilled to have the expertise of Dr Sally Witcher on the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air.

“She joins an acclaimed cohort that will, in the coming months and year, chart a global framework and co-develop national blueprints that offer strategies for action along with the sustained drumbeat of attention and awareness necessary to elevate this issue worldwide.”

As a Commissioner, Dr Witcher will help develop a Global Framework for Action, supporting the development of national Blueprints to strengthen indoor air quality efforts locally.

The WHO has found indoor air pollution is associated with nearly 3.2 million premature deaths annually and contributes to a wide range of chronic and acute health conditions including respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.

Despite the risks and the fact that most people spend a majority of their lives indoors, indoor air quality has historically lagged behind other public health and environmental priorities.

Dr Sally Witcher told healthandcare.scot that, while she has lived experience of exclusion from spaces due to poor air quality, failing to improve indoor air quality will have a knock-on effect for wider systems:

“Failure to take healthy indoor air seriously damages public health, economy and education, with knock-consequences for pressure on NHS services, workplace health and safety, equality and inclusion.

“As someone at clinical risk, interacting daily online with many others leading similarly restricted due to unsafe indoor air, this is an amazing opportunity to help drive positive change for many lives.

“There are no downsides to healthy indoor air, yet much to do here in Scotland to realise its many benefits.

“I hope that this is something Scottish policymakers, public services, businesses, third sector, and people with lived experience of unhealthy air-related exclusion will want to see happen because I know, working together, it can be done.”

Dr Richard Carmona, 17th Surgeon General of the United States and Co-Chair of the Commission on Healthy Indoor Air, added:

“It’s an incredible opportunity to bring such an esteemed group of professionals together for an urgent cause,

“We’ve set forth an important agenda, and I look forward to Dr Sally Witcher’s contributions.”

The Commission’s Global Framework for Action is set to be published by the end of 2026 alongside national blueprints.

Updates from the Commission can be found here.

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