VENTILATION
general guidelines about ventilation and indoor air quality, but those proved to be too general to be applied in residential care centres.” “During our research, residential care
centres were notified whenever the level of CO2
was deemed too high,” says Niels De
Kempeneer, researcher of departement Omgeving (that is, the department concerned with environment). In addition, it had become clear that
poor ventilation is one of the main risk factors for virus transmission. Sara Benoy, environmental health professional of Agentschap Zorg en Gezondheid explains. “SARS-CoV-2 is also transmitted through the air, both from a short distance as from a long distance. With regards to the spreading of viruses through the air, modelling studies have demonstrated that ventilation plays an important role in the countering of this spread. The World Health Organization has also stressed the fact that ventilation is very important.” Benoy also refers to outbreaks in
several residential care centres during the corona pandemic. “Many experts are convinced that a lack of ventilation has played an important role in these outbreaks,” says Benoy. “Up until now, however, we had little or no idea about the specific situation and the specific needs with regards to ventilation and aeration in these facilities. The measuring data of the department Omgeving, however, do already indicate that there is room for improvement in some cases.”
Quality framework for ventilation The quality framework for ventilation has been developed in order to provide an overview of the situation and in order to eventually bring the indoor air quality of our residential care centres to the desired level. This quality framework contains multiple steps. A first step includes the elaboration of a quality manual. “The aim is to put into words the conceptual and operational requirements for a decent ventilation policy in a residential care centre,” says Ann Beusen. “On the one hand, there is a need for a technical guidance document, and on the other hand there is also a need for organizational guidelines with regards to a decent ventilation and aeration policy. This manual will be available after the summer.” A second step in the creation of this
quality framework consists in the running of a ventilation scan in order to register the existing ventilation facilities in Flemish residential care centres. “As a first step in this process, the situation with regards to ventilation concerning a smaller group of people will be mapped during one week. This will happen through a couple of simple CO2
measurements,” according to
Sara Benoy. “Concretely, this means that we ask the residential care centres to
48
perform a measurement at the same time during five days. These measurements should be done in the shared spaces, such as the living room, the dining room, the bathroom, the nursery as well as in the rooms of two of the residents. In the dining room it is recommended that the measurement is done shortly after dinner, when most of the residents are still present in the room.” “The research, done by the department
of environment, indicated when the highest concentration of CO2
was to be “CO2
expected. This way, even with a limited amount of measurements, it is possible to make a good prognosis concerning the ventilation in a residential care centre,” according to Niels De Kempeneer. This week of measuring only relates to . Is there any specific reason for this? is a substance which we exhale, and
CO2
which is removed through ventilation or aeration”, says Sara Benoy. “In case of bad ventilation, CO2
is able to pile up in the
interior air. The amount of CO2
in the
indoor air is, thus, an indicator for the supply of fresh air on the one hand and the removal of CO2
on the other hand. CO2
and other pollutants is therefore a fast
and easy indicator in terms of ventilation.” “An additional advantage is that CO2 can be measured very easily with sensors, it’s cheap and its results are very reliable,” Niels De Kempeneer adds.
Professional audit The scenario regarding the CO2 measurement week has been elaborated within the working group and it has been tested, both during a pilot project and in a couple of residential care centres, where other measurements had already been done by the department Omgeving. This made it possible to judge whether or not the scenario for the CO2
measurement
week was reliable enough. “Together with
ZORG.tech and all of the different ideological organisations, we
The research, done by the department of environment, indicated when the highest concentration of CO2
was to be expected.
This way, even with a limited amount of measurements, it is possible to make a good prognosis concerning the ventilation in a residential care centre
IFHE DIGEST 2023
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