A sound re-opening plan for both K-12 schooled and higher education campuses should include ventilation, filtration and air purification. This is not only important for the current pandemic situation, but also for post-pandemic as well, as the pandemic has heightened our sensitivity to the importance of indoor air quality to reduce the chances of contracting the flu and other airborne infections.
The CDC has just updated their building recommendations for ventilation in schools and childcare programs¹. The recommendations include “maximizing ventilation by setting HVAC systems to bring in as much outdoor air as possible, and to reduce or eliminate HVAC air recirculation.:
BROAD air purification, ventilation and filtration solutions improve and maintain healthy indoor air quality. BROAD’s Fresh Air systems deliver 99.9% fresh air from the outside, and apply HEPA filtration before the air supply is delivered to the indoor spaces. Exhaust air is efficiently removed. An air exchange system warms the incoming air (or cools incoming air in the warmer months) to save energy. These systems can be installed in 1-2 days for a typical classroom, working with the central air duct system or as a standalone system for each classroom.
The CDC guideline also recommends to consider portable air cleaners that use HEPA filters to enhance air cleaning wherever possible, especially in higher-risk areas such as nurse’s, teachers and admin offices. BROAD’s “AirPro” line of purifiers have a powerful HEPA H13 filtration that filters PM2.5 by over 99.9%. A more advanced form of air purification is provided by BROAD’s family of "plug and play" electrostatic air purification systems covering up to 9500 sq ft depending on the model. Electrostatic cleaning safely eliminates pathogens and neutralize allergens, and has a proven kill rate of 99.99% against the SARC-CoV-2 virus in a CLIA (under CDC) test lab.
These systems are a critical layer in a multi-layer approach to safe re-opening, along with masking and distancing, and sanitation. And beyond the elimination of pathogens, these systems eliminate PM2.5 from a range of sources to improve overall air quality.
1. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/ventilation.html