The age of COVID-19 has brought upon us a re-examination of the air we breathe inside buildings. While history offers examples of airborne outbreaks inside buildings, this incident, unlike any of its predecessors, caught the entire world’s attention simultaneously. Yet, for those of us aware of the effects of water damaged building air quality, this qualifies as a “Duh!” moment. Practicing environmental medicine in which we guide patients in identifying and overcoming toxins in their lives means that we have been measuring and evaluating indoor air spaces in homes and businesses for years. The possible spread of COVID 19 by airborne transmission now means that the conventional world has awakened to the possibility that air quality deserves our attention.
The journal article authors urge a public health and regulatory response to the quality of air provided within public buildings. They offer ideas in terms of setting higher standards for indoor air than just temperature and a clean smell. They question if air quality monitors would be an effective means of alerting the public to dangerous air quality in some buildings. They explain that the health care cost burden of poor air quality has been spread out in ways that make it less recognized. They urge a proactive, eyes-open response.
As a functional medicine physician caring for many patients whose health has suffered and continues to suffer from poor air quality in their homes, businesses, churches, and buildings they frequently visit, I appreciate the potential attention this will garner from an unaware public. As a business owner which already runs air filters in our office to maintain air quality, I also know that such regulations do not come for free. Air purifiers and air quality monitors have a cost. I also know that well meant laws can morph into burdensome regulations costing much more than common sense and logic would dictate.
If the government and its experts run with this, we may have better air quality but at a very high price tag. If instead, doctors would rise to the occasion to lead the public with good data and wisdom, maybe we could get the better air quality at a lower price tag. Maybe, at the very least, we could get some pressure on builders, both residential and commercial, to stop cutting corners in the construction process. Some of these cut-corners lead to a variety of airborne toxins like volatile organic compounds and eventual mold from moisture leaks.
Yes, we need to examine whether or not indoor ventilation systems have contributed to the spread of COVID 19. To be honest, there are mixed results of studies so far. More importantly, we need to examine the quality of the air we breathe indoor and outdoor whether affected by nearby industrial pollution, nearby agricultural pesticides and herbicides, or what is coming out of our home’s air vents. Helping others live healthier more abundant lives means educating ourselves and others on the health effects of what enters our lungs 24/7/365 from our environment.
Lidia Morawska, Joseph Allen, William Bahnfleth, Philomena M. Bluyssen, Atze Boerstra, Giorgio Buonanno, Junji Cao, Stephanie J. Dancer, Andres Floto, Francesco Franchimon, Trisha Greenhalgh, Charles Haworth, Jaap Hogeling, Christina Isaxon, Jose L. Jimenez, Jarek Kurnitski, Yuguo Li, Marcel Loomans, Guy Marks, Linsey C. Marr, Livio Mazzarella, Arsen Krikor Melikov, Shelly Miller, Donald K. Milton, William Nazaroff, Peter V. Nielsen, Catherine Noakes, Jordan Peccia, Kim Prather, Xavier Querol, Chandra Sekhar, Olli Seppänen, Shin-ichi Tanabe, Julian W. Tang, Raymond Tellier, Kwok Wai Tham, Pawel Wargocki, Aneta Wierzbicka, Maosheng Yao. A paradigm shift to combat indoor respiratory infection. Science, 2021; 372 (6543): 689 DOI: 10.1126/science.abg2025
Thanks to Science Daily:
Queensland University of Technology. “Call for ‘paradigm shift’ to fight airborne spread of COVID-19 indoors.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 May 2021. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210513142456.htm>.
Additional Articles on Ventilation and COVID-19
Aaron Foster, Michael Kinzel. Estimating COVID-19 exposure in a classroom setting: A comparison between mathematical and numerical models. Physics of Fluids, 2021; 33 (2): 021904 DOI: 10.1063/5.0040755
Paul Tupper, Himani Boury, Madi Yerlanov, Caroline Colijn. Event-specific interventions to minimize COVID-19 transmission. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020; 202019324 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2019324117
Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus/ventilation-and-coronavirus-covid-19 . Accessed 5/19/21.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ventilation.html . Accessed 5/19/21.
Bhagat, R., Davies Wykes, M., Dalziel, S., & Linden, P. (2020). Effects of ventilation on the indoor spread of COVID-19. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 903, F1. doi:10.1017/jfm.2020.720.
WebMD. Study: Poor Ventilation Could Spread COVID Indoors. By Caroline Crist. Published April 7, 2021. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210406/study-poor-ventilation-could-spread-covid-indoors. Accessed 5/19/21.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.