VENTILATION - CONFIDENCE TO RETURN

Ventilation and Safe Reopening

Phew! What a time. The effects of the lockdown have left us all wondering what the future normal will look like. Events of the past three months have left everything to the imagination but have not done much to diminish the sense of vacuous surrealness that we all feel. But the human spirit has been gifted the ability to bounce back from tragedy.

One of the great ingredients of bounce back is confidence, but our confidence has been knocked by this virus. Things like shaking hands, hugging our friends and loved ones, going to a restaurant for a meal, going to our place of work and even going to places of worship will all now be viewed with varying degrees of trepidation.  

Meanwhile, the Government is beginning to ease some elements of the lockdown. This means we can now meet others in parks, in our backyards etc., which is great. Their confidence to allow such gatherings is because the virus does not thrive well in environments where there is an abundance of air movement. This churning of the air outdoors causes a diluting effect as high volumes of air go past the face. This air movement does not allow the virus to stagnate in our breathing zone thus lowering the chances of infection. They are now discussing the easing of further measures such as reopening places of work and leisure, and reducing social distancing from 2m to 1m. This is also great.

But I believe that we need to reopen in an honest and intelligent manner. We need to identify the risks, communicate the risks and put measures in place to mitigate them if we are going to have any chance of protecting lives and not causing another spike in infection. To this end, the Government would be well advised to promote the proper ventilation of public spaces as a key feature of reopening. Our public health policies going forward must be predicated on our experience of the present epidemic and have capacity to deal with any future ones. 

We cannot ban COVID-19 and other viruses from public spaces, but we can limit their impact. For instance, a close look has to be taken at the effectiveness of the ventilation of care homes. We need to deploy effective engineering controls to limit the spread of this and other viruses in public places as a matter of urgency. This may also help to limit the spread of the common flu from year to year.

Good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is vital to the safe and sustained reopening of the economy post-COVID-19. Moreover, there has never been a greater need for innovative ventilation to control contaminants indoors. The Design and installation of effective ventilation solutions aimed at diluting and removing contaminated air is going to be key in protecting people who enter public spaces in future. 

Good IAQ may well become the distinguishing feature between two otherwise equally good restaurants. It is conceivable that people would make the calculation that the risk is too high to dine in a restaurant with poor ventilation in a post-COVID-19 world. Quality ventilation will therefore become a key selling point for hospitality venues. It will certainly be a crucial element for boosting confidence to all who are thinking of re-entering places of work, leisure, care homes, manufacturing etc. Simply reopening the economy is not enough. 

Sigma Engineering Product Design Ltd. has a range of ventilation approaches that can deliver excellent indoor air quality with integrated green technologies that can help in this regard.