Upgrading buildings’ ventilation, filtration and other factors would not only decrease COVID transmission but also improve health and cognitive performance in general
We spend 90 percent of our lives indoors, yet most of us seldom spare a thought for the quality of the air we breathe there.
Cleaner indoor air has other benefits besides reducing COVID risk. Influenza and other respiratory viruses also spread through the air and cause a huge amount of illness and lost productivity. Plus, studies have shown that poor ventilation has all kinds of other health effects, from “sick building syndrome” to cognitive impacts.
Much attention is paid to the quality of outdoor air—that is one of the main roles of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But people spend much more time indoors, where we are routinely exposed not just to environmental pollutants but to indoor ones ranging from pathogens to cooking fumes to chemicals released by furniture.
ASHRAE standards aim to limit exposure to harmful substances with known exposure limits, such as formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds, but not to pathogens—for which there are far fewer data—according to William P. Bahnfleth, chair of the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force and a professor of architectural engineering at Pennsylvania State University.
When it comes to pathogens like SARS-CoV-2, a person who has been knowingly exposed could wear a high-quality mask or could stay home if they have any symptoms. Aside from windows, another source of indoor airflow is a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. Most of these systems allow a building manager to vary the amount of fresh air intake. It should generally be set to maximum, experts say—provided the outdoor air quality is safe. Yet many buildings, especially before the pandemic, have had their HVAC system set to recirculate old, stale air.
Portable air cleaners are not cheap, however; a good quality model starts at around $200, and the price goes up from there. Fortunately, some researchers have come up with a more affordable solution known as a Corsi-Rosenthal box. Named after U.C. Davis’s Corsi and Jim Rosenthal, CEO of filter manufacturer Tex-Air Filters, who both helped develop the idea, it is basically a DIY air cleaner made up of a box fan and four or five MERV filters duct-taped together.
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