It's something that is important to health, but often overlooked: air quality. As part of Yahoo Finance's Healthcare Week, senior reporter Anjalee Khemlani speaks with Director of Harvard's Healthy Buildings Program, Joseph Allen, on the growing awareness of indoor air quality's impact on health, spotlighted by COVID-19. For the first time in history, the CDC has created a health-based target focused on air quality control. Allen says the pandemic revealed the need to address airborne risks, which go beyond COVID-19 to other viruses and health/cognitive impacts. Respiratory pathogens like the flu and the rise in wildfires demonstrate why air quality matters. He notes clean air's invisibility makes monitoring essential, referencing technologies like CO2 monitors which help enable individuals to properly asses their immediate environment. Allen believes more widespread adoption of sensors is important for awareness and accountability. He highlights a new system deployed across Amazon's facilities (AMZN) to ensure healthy air quality for workers. While the pandemic awakened interest, Allen stresses that sustaining consistent momentum will require ongoing education and technology adoption to empower individuals and organizations to make indoor air quality protection a top priority. "We've been in the sick-building era for forty years because we've designed our buildings without health-based targets, and that era is over." Allen tells Yahoo Finance. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

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