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Access to Science mag article on IAQ

Profile picture for user Nadav Malin
Nadav Malin
CEO
Green Commons, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
586 thumbs up

Hi folks,

There was a lot of interest on the call yesterday in the article that Kim showed from a host of leading IAQ experts. I was not able to find a legal way to get a copy that we can share, so if you want it I think it would be appropriate to either pay the $30 for the article (one-day access ??) or $79 for a one-year AAAS membership and access to all of Science mag's archives.

Alternatively, if you're affiliated with an academic institution you can probably get it through their library. Anyone else have suggestions? Or key take-aways, if you've read it?

Here's the citation:

A paradigm shift to combat indoor respiratory infection

  1. Lidia Morawska,
  2. Joseph Allen,
  3. William Bahnfleth,
  4. Philomena M. Bluyssen,
  5. Atze Boerstra,
  6. Giorgio Buonanno,
  7. Junji Cao,
  8. Stephanie J. Dancer,
  9. Andres Floto,
  10. Francesco Franchimon,
  11. Trisha Greenhalgh,
  12. Charles Haworth,
  13. Jaap Hogeling,
  14. Christina Isaxon,
  15. Jose L. Jimenez,
  16. Jarek Kurnitski,
  17. Yuguo Li,
  18. Marcel Loomans,
  19. Guy Marks,
  20. Linsey C. Marr,
  21. Livio Mazzarella,
  22. Arsen Krikor Melikov,
  23. Shelly Miller,
  24. Donald K. Milton,
  25. William Nazaroff,
  26. Peter V. Nielsen,
  27. Catherine Noakes,
  28. Jordan Peccia,
  29. Kim Prather,
  30. Xavier Querol,
  31. Chandra Sekhar,
  32. Olli Seppänen,
  33. Shin-ichi Tanabe,
  34. Julian W. Tang,
  35. Raymond Tellier,
  36. Kwok Wai Tham,
  37. Pawel Wargocki,
  38. Aneta Wierzbicka,
  39. Maosheng Yao
Science  14 May 2021:Vol. 372, Issue 6543, pp. 689-691

DOI: 10.1126/science.abg2025

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Profile picture for user kshinn
Kim Shinn
Executive Principal and Senior Wizard
TLC Engineering Solutions
LEEDuser Premium Member
62 thumbs up

Wed, 06/09/2021 - 17:00

Since I have a copy, and started the ruckus, here is my shot at the "key take-aways":
  • The article highlights the great disparity that exists between how we think about and address the different sources of environmental infection, citing that we have many standards and laws regulating food safety, sanitation and drinking water for public health purposes, but by contrast, have very weak standards on the air we breathe.  This article is essentially a call for establishing stronger standards on limiting community respiratory infection transmission in public buildings and transport infrastructure (with the notable exception of licensed healthcare facilities which comply with current regulations, which have performed quite well in the recent COVID-19 pandemic).
  • The WHO IAQ guidelines provide exposure limits for benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and other chemicals, but do not provide ventilation guidelines or standards to specifically control the concentration of these pollutants indoors.  WHO guidelines specifically provide no recommendations or standards for mitigating bacteria or viruses, originating from human respiratory activities, in indoor air.
  • A major challenge in the use of ventilation to protect against infection transmission is that the calculation of ventilation rates for this purpose is considerably more complicated than for other pollutants (such as the ones in the WHO guidelines).  Pathogen emission rates and infectious doses vary from disease to disease, from person to person (which depend on the physiology of the respiratory tract, which varies by age, among other factors), by the stage of the disease, as well as by the nature of the respiratory activity (e.g., speaking, singing or panting).
  • Demand control and flexibility are necessary not only to control risk but also to address other requirements, not the least of which is energy use.  Ventilation design should optimize IEQ in terms of health and comfort, in an energy efficient way, responding to the contexts of local climate and outdoor air pollution.
  • In some settings it will not be possible to increase ventilation to the point of reducing risk to an acceptable level, regardless of the quality of the ventilation system.  This depends on the risk of infection of each susceptible occupant, the event reproduction number (just how infectious is the pathogen), and the reality that ventilation has minimal impact on near-field exposure.
  • The article makes several recommendations:
    • First and foremost, the continuous global hazard of airborne respiratory infection must be recognized so that the risk can be controlled.
    • Global WHO IAQ guidelines must be extended to include airborne pathogens and to recognize the need to control the hazard of their transmission.
    • National, comprehensive IAQ standards (developed by professional bodies) that explicitly consider infection control, must be established and enforced.
    • Wide use of monitors displaying the state of IAQ must be mandated.  Visible displays will keep building operators accountable and increase public awareness.

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