VENTILATION
Germ warfare
As more evidence emerges that COVID-19 infections can be spread in the air, John Grenville, managing director of ECEX, examines the processes that kill pathogens and contribute to cleaner indoor air quality.
T
he alarming rate at which the COVID-19 pandemic has spread in the UK is illustrated by a single stark statistic – 50,335 deaths involving the virus occurred between 1 March and 30 June 2020 in England and Wales; of these, 46,736 had COVID-19 assigned as the underlying cause of death.
The eruption in coronavirus cases is due to the virus’s exponential growth, with the number of new infections proportional to the sum of cases already present. In other words, the higher the number of cases, the greater the rate of increase. But what is causing the infection in
the fi rst place? Until now, we have been bombarded with warnings that we must wash our hands thoroughly at every opportunity and not touch our faces, the implication being that the COVID-19 virus is passed on mainly through contact with surfaces.
However, fears are growing that the virus may also be more easily spread through the air than originally thought. A recent report in the British Medical Journal, for example, claimed that microscopic respiratory droplets generated by talking and breathing can hover in the air for minutes or even hours and drift many metres horizontally before infecting people.
More than 200 experts from 32 countries published a commentary in Clinical Infectious Diseases, a highly respected, peer-reviewed medical journal, that appeals to the medical community and to relevant
24 October 2020
national and international bodies including the World Health Organisation to recognise the potential for airborne spread of COVID- 19.
Evidence for the airborne transmission of COVID-19 is also building elsewhere. In the US, White House coronavirus advisor Dr Anthony Fauci has said that he thinks “there certainly is a degree of aerosolisation” causing the coronavirus to spread. This is backed by guidance from the World Health Organisation that acknowledged it can’t rule out the possibility the coronavirus can be transmitted through air particles in closed spaces indoors, including in gyms and restaurants.
And a study by researchers at the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital in the US has revealed that the virus could travel as far as 5m through the air. The study states: “These fi ndings strengthen the notion that airborne transmission of COVID- 19 is likely and plays a critical role in the spread.”
As Nathan Wood, chair of BESA’s Health & Wellbeing in Buildings group, has pointed out, we should look beyond the current standards: “Best practice should be a minimum. Every building owner should be investing in ventilation hygiene, maintenance and what simple steps they can take to ensure the safety of the people inside their building.”
For Mr Wood, this could be helped by creating a new ventilation standard whose provisions should include ventilation
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