Around forty people attended today the sixteenth health and wellness cluster dedicated to indoor environmental quality and water. The session took place at the Centre d’Interpretació de l’Aigua i del Madriu (CIAM) in Escaldes-Engordany, in collaboration with the Andorran Association for Indoor Environmental Quality (AAQAI).
The minister of Tourism and Environment, Francesc Camp inaugurated this cluster reiterating the importance of improving the environment in Andorra. Camp said indicators of air and water quality were very satisfactory in the country. He also recalled the current efforts to improve the environmental field, which is more evident by signing numerous international conventions. The minister wanted to show that the environment is a global problem, although much legislation is still less defined.
The event was attended by several company managers from Andorra and surroundings. All of them have highlighted a major concern: energy efficiency and the negative impact of poor environmental quality on health. For example, Mrs. Glòria Cruceta, CEO of Segla Qualitat SL, reminded the tragic incident occurred a few days ago in Sabadell due to an outbreak of Legionella Disease caused by a cooling tower.
Mrs. Carla Vidal, head of the Laboratory Ecotècnic in Andorra talked about Legionella and regulations on water treatment protocols for cleaning and disinfecting in Catalonia and Spain. She said in Andorra there is only a decree on health for pools destined to collective use, and a decree on cooling. She followed with cleaning and disinfection protocols and alerted about the lack of such protocols in terms of facilities maintenance.
Mr. Vicente Pico, CEO of Ambientcar in Valencia, highlighted the importance of new technologies in the field of energy saving measures and water quality. In his opinion, the key objectives of any new technology are: efficiency, effectiveness, and environmentally friendly. The expert advocates for using as few chemicals as possible, reducing water consumption while protecting public health.
Moreover, Ms. Isabel Segura, head of new technologies at Ambientcar, focused on the importance of future investment in these new technologies to improve performance, reduce costs and generate energy savings. An investment that is considered essential to avoid future health problems as Mr. Josep Maria Gabernet, CEO of Europrevenció in Andorra, recognized.
Finally, Mr. Peter Marcé, from Prinicipat Qualipreven compared concepts of indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency.
In short, all the participants agreed that investing in new technology allows both improving water quality in our work environment and energy saving.
The next event organised by the Actua program will be the Education cluster on October 14th.
