Building Ventilation Standard for Airborne Contagions

The purpose of the Building Ventilation Standard for Airborne Contagions is to establish the minimum requirements to reduce the risk of disease transmission from infectious aerosols within occupied spaces.

Cassbeth has been performing research on COVID-19 from a systems perspective since 2020 and has decided to release the Building Airborne Contagions Mitigation Ventilation Standard. It is offered as a supplement to all ventilation standards and ventilation standards associated with the control of airborne infections (e.g. ASHRAE 241P). Regulatory bodies, engineering firms, and anyone engaged in ventilation development, maintenance, and operations is encouraged to use this standard.

This standard is for everyone to use when assessing their ventilation systems and performing maintenance, upgrades, or installing new ventilation systems as part of renovations or new construction. This standard applies to all public and private buildings including Schools, Offices, Restaurants, Retail Stores, Assisted Living Facilities, Rehabilitation Facilities, Nursing Homes, Airports, Train Stations, Homes, Factories, Warehouses, Labs, Animal Facilities etc. Individuals, staff, managers, and owners are encouraged to review this standard and provide it to their vendors for compliance. Engineering firms, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) companies, building environment companies, air quality companies, building code authorities are all encouraged to adopt this standard into their specifications and codes.

This standard has simple, clear, concise, and testable requirements that anyone can understand, design, implement, and test to ensure the ventilation system is performing as desired. This standard contains education content and background that allows users to learn the basic art associated with this standard without engaging in a massive external research effort. This type of information is critical for engineers so that they can effectively implement the standard and maintain the spirit of the standard when uncharted areas need to be addressed by various designs.

Cassbeth research showed that the problem is massive within small enclosed spaces, problematic in large spaces, and extremely rare in outdoor spaces. During the research, ventilation systems were studied and their effectiveness in mitigating the risk of infection. It was found that there are different approaches to ventilation that trace back into the early part of the 20th century.

Before COVID-19 surfaced people would get sick but eventually recover and return to life. Some would die from the Flu. Sick building syndrome was a typical reference. The death rate for COVID-19 was and is much higher than the typical Flu strains and it forced the shutdown of whole societies around the world. The vaccine has helped to restart the world but COVID-19 with its variants is still in the biosphere and more importantly not everyone has access to effective vaccines. COVID-19 showed that we have a problem with our ventilation systems.

There are categories of facilities such as Elite, Medium, Low, and Very Low end facilities that are separated by ventilation levels as determined by design performance levels, maintenance, and or operations. For example, an Elite facility might become a Very Low end facility because of poor operations in a scenario like an age 55 community clubhouse that tries to save money by turning off the ventilation system when people are present. Another example is a school room where the vents are closed off in the ceiling and the system sensors are unable to detect the close off condition and the children get infected. These are both real world examples from the research findings.

The problems with our ventilation systems started with the energy crisis in the 1970s when everyone was encouraged to turn down ventilation rates to save fuel. It became worse when smoking was banned in the 1980s and the ventilation levels were further reduced. Today with the need to reduce carbon footprints the ventilation levels are being further reduced. The choice must not be reduced carbon foot print versus health in the 21st century. It must be both health and reduced carbon footprints. That is the challenge for this generation in the 21st century.

This standard is based on systems engineering and the systems perspective. It does not endorse any technologies, products, industries, or companies. In a systems engineering effort for a problem of this magnitude all technologies and products are examined that may be able to address the need and provide a viable solution. This is called large complex systems engineering. Examples of large complex systems engineering from the previous century are the Telephone system, Radio and Television, US Space Program, Air Defense, Air Traffic Control, etc. This standard is in that spirit of an effective systems engineering activity and solution.

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