Between heat and wildfire smoke, many people have been driven indoors this summer. Heat is one of the most dangerous conditions; more people die from heat waves than tornadoes and other disasters that make more news.
And the wildfire smoke has pushed the air quality index off the charts in a lot of places that aren’t used to such things. Not that anyone can get used to those levels; human lungs aren’t that good.
So people stay inside, with windows closed and air conditioners cranked up, and hope the power doesn’t go out.
The thing is, indoor air can also be bad for us, if not as immediately bad as heat or as obviously bad as smoke. The pandemic made clear that many viruses are airborne – something that should have been clear to all of us decades ago – so that breathing in places with poor ventilation means diseases spread quickly.
Lots of indoor spaces have lousy ventilation. Even fewer of them have good filtration systems that screen out viruses and particulate matter.
Fires and heat waves have always been with us, though now they are much worse due to climate change and likely to continue getting worse. We are going to have to deal with them for some time to come, likely centuries even if we actually start doing things to repair the damage done to our atmosphere.
Fortunately, we can easily do quite a lot about indoor air quality, and, in fact, engineers have been working on that for quite some time. Our biggest problem is not the technology – it exists and isn’t even particularly expensive – but, as with most of the issues we face right now, the political will to get it done.
Back in 2021, ASHRAE (the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) was asked by President Biden to address the issues caused by virus spread indoors. This week I listened to an introductory webinar on the standard conducted by a professor of engineering from Penn State who worked on it.
In four months – incredibly fast for an organization devoted to meticulous study of issues that often takes years to develop standards – they came up with Standard 241 on control of infectious aerosols. The standard addresses such things as amount of ventilation required to reduce the risk as well as filtration devices and other methods of limiting or destroying the viruses.
The original standard was recommended only, since it had not had the usual level of review, but now it is up for certification as an ANSI standard, which means that it can more easily be adopted into building codes and related regulation.
Standard 241 is obviously related to overall indoor air quality, but has been published separately from other ASHRAE standards that govern that. The intent, I think, is to allow those maintaining building systems to ramp up for epidemic conditions, rather than include such standards at all times. I gathered from the webinar that not everyone agrees with keeping them separate.
Given how many viruses are airborne, I think protection against airborne diseases should always be part of the indoor air quality system. While Covid was obvious and devastating, flu happens every year and other respiratory viruses spread regularly.
It seems to me that setting up buildings to minimize spread of disease as well as blocking toxic chemicals and particulate matter leads to healthier indoor spaces for everyone.
A few years ago, my partner and I got a CO2 meter to use as a proxy for the possibility of virus exposure. The level of CO2 in a room gives you a good idea of whether you’re inhaling other people’s lung exhalations. As long as it’s under 800 ppm, you’re probably OK.
(Outdoors it should be below 400 these days, though it never gets below about 550 in my neighborhood. Sigh.)
Once we started paying attention we learned that not only are a lot of spaces that feel relatively comfortable full of excess CO2, but that CO2 itself can be a problem. While it’s not going to make you sick in the same way a virus would, it does make you drowsy and impair your cognitive reasoning as it goes up.
Which is to say, you really want schools and workplaces to have a low level of CO2 not just to prevent virus spread but also to keep people in healthy mental states.
One thing I noticed after using it in the car: when the windows and vents are closed – even with the AC or heat on – the CO2 rapidly gets quite high, often above 1200 ppm. Ever noticed you get drowsy when driving? I have. These days I leave the vents open even with the AC on. Yeah, that slightly affects gas mileage, but it keeps me more alert.
I’ve also noticed that hotels and convention centers that seem to have excellent air quality in their common spaces, with low CO2 readings, often have terrible levels in the smaller meeting rooms. Wonder why people come back from cons with con crud? This is why.
So to come back to the ASHRAE standard: it’s very good and should be built into indoor air quality. So far, however, the only place that’s adopted 241 in full is the United Arab Emirates. A couple of other places have used it a little, but no place in the U.S. has done anything with it. (Many businesses and public buildings have made some upgrades using it as a guideline on their own, but none of it is required or well-publicized.)
My personal big takeaway from the pandemic is that vastly improving indoor air systems can protect us from viruses and from particulate matter, toxins, allergens, and other substances in the air. The ASHRAE standards are great, but they won’t do much unless they’re adopted by many jurisdictions, which unfortunately will take a long time and a lot of advocacy.
Obviously we need greater attention to outdoor air quality as well, but as the current administration is tearing down the progress we’ve made, I don’t see much improvement there in the near future. I grew up before we started regulating emissions, so I know the progress we’ve made and also how bad it will be if we stop even though what we’ve done is far from enough.
Air, like water, is an absolute necessity for life. We need to stop damaging ours and build protective systems where we can.