HVAC has a vital role to play in slowing the spread of COVID-19 as Australia re-opens, with automation of ventilation to ensure the highest possible turnover of air wherever people are located, combined with HEPA filtration, considered the gold standard.
But despite clear evidence ventilation and filtration save lives, Australia is not addressing standards, according to Queensland University of Technology professor, Professor Lidia Morawska.
Professor Morawska, who was recently named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for her role in highlighting the airborne transmission of COVID-19, argues the lack of indoor air quality standards in Australia is “a big problem”.
“The community for the past year-and-a-half has been taught to clean hands, sanitise hands, clean surfaces…but nothing about cleaning the air,” Professor Morawska said.
She said a paradigm change is needed in the design of buildings to ensure the air inside them is clean. For healthcare security and safety professionals, Professor Morawska’s advice is to do everything possible to bring as much outdoor air inside as possible and if that is not possible, to use HEPA filters – using both strategies is best.
“If we have air purifiers which filter the virus from the air, the infection risk is significantly reduced,” Professor Morawska said.
A recent Melbourne study found 2 small portable HEPA filters cleared 99 per cent of aerosols from a hospital room within 5.5 minutes and Professor Morawska said lives could have been saved in Australia if more had been done to reduce indoor COVID-19 transmission.
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