flexiblefullpage -
billboard - default
interstitial1 - interstitial
catfish1 - bottom
Currently Reading

Steps to improve ventilation for Covid can combat colds and flu

Codes and Standards

Steps to improve ventilation for Covid can combat colds and flu

New look at airborne disease spread shows time viruses linger in air may have been underestimated.


By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor | September 21, 2021
Ceiling ventilation

Courtesy Pixabay

The way viruses spread from human to human is being reevaluated by scientists and that may have an impact on future ventilation standards.

At the outset of the Covid-19 outbreak, the prevailing belief was that the virus was spread via droplets that quickly dropped out of the air. As researchers studied the virus, however, they realized that it was likely spread via aerosols—smaller, lighter particles that travel further than six feet and can linger in the air in poorly ventilated spaces.

Colds and flu have been thought to be primarily spread via droplets, as well, as they hold more viruses than aerosols. But studies have found that a smaller amount of influenza virus is needed to infect people when inhaled as aerosols rather than sprayed up the nose as saliva droplets.

If this view is correct, improved ventilation could greatly reduce transmission of colds and flu viruses as well as Covid. For this reason, some believe new minimum ventilation standards in buildings should be enacted especially when one considers some 12,000 to 61,000 people annually succumb to the flu.

Related Stories

| Jul 12, 2012

Contractors have increasing concerns over new federal hiring quotas

A proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to increase disabled- and veteran-worker hiring quotas for federal contractors continues to raise deep concerns among contractors.

| Jul 5, 2012

Veterans Administration threatens to pull contract on new Orlando medical center

The Veterans Administration asked contractor Brasfield & Gorrie to get more workers on the job and figure out a way to get the job done faster, or the VA would pull the contract on the much-delayed Orlando VA Medical Center.

| Jul 5, 2012

Cost to contractors for new federal hiring quotas much higher than estimated, AGC says

Administration officials significantly underestimated the cost to construction employers of proposed new hiring quotas for federal contractors, according to analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America.

| Jul 5, 2012

Roof membrane could have prevented roof parking deck collapse, specialist says

The collapse of a section of a roof parking deck at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake in Ontario, Canada could have been prevented if the structure had a membrane, according to a concrete expert and specialist in structure analysis at McMaster University.

| Jul 5, 2012

New Joplin, Mo. hospital being built to withstand tornado that destroyed predecessor

After the May 22, 2011, EF-5 tornado destroyed St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., architects and engineers analyzed how the nine-story structure reacted to the storm.

| Jul 5, 2012

Continued tax breaks necessary for widespread adoption of net zero buildings

Tax breaks passed by the U.S. government to encourage construction of green buildings are set to expire in 2012 and 2013.

| Jun 28, 2012

Six buildings now recognized under Living Building Challenge

The Living Building Challenge (LBC), a green ratings system for design and construction that judges a building based on its actual performance, not just its projected performance at the design stage, has recognized six buildings to date.

| Jun 28, 2012

Label for building products will have ‘global warming number’

The director of the 2030 Challenge for Products says that the organization is aiming to place a label on building products that will list what’s in it, and how much embodied carbon each product represents.

boombox1 - default
boombox2 -
native1 -

More In Category


MFPRO+ News

ENERGY STAR NextGen Certification for New Homes and Apartments launched

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently launched ENERGY STAR NextGen Certified Homes and Apartments, a voluntary certification program for new residential buildings. The program will increase national energy and emissions savings by accelerating the building industry’s adoption of advanced, energy-efficient technologies, according to an EPA news release. 



halfpage1 -

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021