3 ms·

I’d love to see more awareness of the importance of indoor air quality this time around.

yoshuaw 2y ago
Strong agreement. Minimum safety standards for indoor air are as important as minimum safety standards for water and food. For those interested: the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate maintains a database of indoor air quality standards worldwide [1]. It lists standards by country, and allows you to filter by pollutant. CO2 is a commonly proxy for ventilation with values <800-1000ppm typically considered to be “good”. For the US specifically: the recently published ASHRAE 241 standard [2] provides updated guidelines for indoor air quality. This provides stronger guarantees than the weaker ASHRAE 62.1 standard [3], as it specifically focuses on reducing aerosol-based transmission of pathogens such as (but not limited to) Covid-19 and H5N1. [1]: https://ieqguidelines.org/table?factor=iaq https://ieqguidelines.org/table?factor=iaq [2]: https://www.ashrae.org/about/news/2023/ashrae-publishes-standard-241-control-of-infectious-aerosols https://www.ashrae.org/about/news/2023/ashrae-publishes-stan... [3]: https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/bookstore/standards-62-1-62-2 https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/bookstore/standar...
Confiks 2y ago
It's even more important if this finding [1] (press release [2]) turns out to be true, namely that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is not just a proxy for air quality, but that having less of it actually actively destabilizes virus particles. Also, portable air cleaners seem to work pretty well [3]. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47777-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47777-5 [2] https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2024/virus.html https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2024/virus.html [3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950362024000043 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S295036202...

Strong agreement. Minimum safety standards for indoor air are as important as minimum safety standards for water and food. For those interested: the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate maintains a database of indoor air quality standards worldwide [1]. It lists standards by country, and allows you to filter by pollutant. CO2 is a commonly proxy for ventilation with values <800-1000ppm typically considered to be “good”. For the US specifically: the recently published ASHRAE 241 standard [2] provides updated guidelines for indoor air quality. This provides stronger guarantees than the weaker ASHRAE 62.1 standard [3], as it specifically focuses on reducing aerosol-based transmission of pathogens such as (but not limited to) Covid-19 and H5N1. [1]: https://ieqguidelines.org/table?factor=iaq https://ieqguidelines.org/table?factor=iaq [2]: https://www.ashrae.org/about/news/2023/ashrae-publishes-standard-241-control-of-infectious-aerosols https://www.ashrae.org/about/news/2023/ashrae-publishes-stan... [3]: https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/bookstore/standards-62-1-62-2 https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/bookstore/standar...

Confiks 2y ago

It's even more important if this finding [1] (press release [2]) turns out to be true, namely that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is not just a proxy for air quality, but that having less of it actually actively destabilizes virus particles. Also, portable air cleaners seem to work pretty well [3]. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47777-5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47777-5 [2] https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2024/virus.html https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/news/2024/virus.html [3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950362024000043 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S295036202...