The Importance of Clean Air: COVID Safety
Published on October 14, 2022
The scientific community shares the view that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne: it is transmitted through invisible particles containing the virus that can travel through and remain in the air for extended periods of time. Controlling airborne transmission is therefore critical to containing the spread of COVID-19 and keeping
each other, our families, our elderly, our schools, and our work spaces safe. The good news is that securing clean air is something we can do. By taking action to maintain clean indoor air, we can keep businesses functioning without interruption, enhance the safety of healthcare settings, and in combination
with other measures, aid in the sustained revival of safe social and economic life, which have been devastated by the pandemic. Clean air requires the employment of air quality monitoring, ventilation, air filtration, fresh air circulation, and limiting occupancy to achieve safer indoor environments.
1. Measure CO2 levels to gauge the amount of exhaled air in an indoor space. In the absence of air filtration, indoor CO2 levels should not exceed 800 PPM, or 1000 PPM if HVAC or HEPA filtration is used. Place CO2 monitors in public spaces to make values visible.
2. Enable mechanical or natural ventilation and/or air cleaning devices (filtration) to improve air quality and air circulation. Keep windows open whenever possible, and introduce air purifiers with true HEPA filters that are appropriate for the size of the indoor space (usually you’ll want to get from 6 to 12 Air Changes or more per Hour in a room). DIY solutions are effective, affordable alternatives you can implement to enhance indoor air quality.
3. Limit indoor occupancy to reduce individual risk when CO2 levels exceed the recommended limits in the presence of filtration.
4. Encourage the use of masks, social distancing and remote options for work and learning.
LISTEN!📢 Watch/listen to WHN’s Long COVID Symposium recording for discussions that examine the impact on patients, society, labor markets and productivity, and the future of our health.
RESOURCES
COVID-19
- New variants BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1 and others are converging on highly immune evading mutations, much more immune evasive than BA.5, pointing to a rapidly growing upcoming destructive wave (preprint)
- German health minister urges masking in indoor spaces not long after Germany introduced national requirements for masks and testing in healthcare institutions, care homes, and transportation, with a framework for more restrictive state imposed restrictions (DPA, DW)
- National Nurses United urges CDC to strengthen workplace protections for nurses and other health care workers (NNU)
- Previously well individuals who did not requiring hospitalization during their acute Covid infection were found to have developed cardiac symptoms in almost 3 out of 4 of cases after several months and in 57% of cases after a year (Nature Medicine)
- SARS-CoV-2 infection causes permanent injury to organs in hamsters and humans (Science)
- SARS-CoV-2 directly infects both adipose (fat storage) cells in the body and immune macrophages that are present near them, causing an inflammatory response in human adipose tissue (Science)
- Study makes it clear that the structure of Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.2 were dramatically different from each other and previous variants (Science)