Page 30 - OHS, April/May 2024

INDOOR AIR QUALITY
Pandemic-Proofing Our Air:
How Standard 241 Makes Indoor Air Safer
How a game-changing health standard strengthens protection against airborne viruses.
ASHRAE’s recently released Standard 241 serves as a helpful reference for minimum
safety standards in various buildings and spaces.
BY M. ELAINE DASTI, PE, AND TOM BURGESS, MS, CSP, CIH
In the early days of the pandemic, a pa- tient at a local physical therapy clinic noted the impressive measures taken to ensure infection control and how
it made her more comfortable. Physical therapy involves a lot of close contact, and given the effects of the pandemic, the of- fice was doing its best to make patients feel comfortable. They put up signs explaining the enhanced filtration in their HVAC sys- tem; there were UV disinfection lights by the ceiling and other air and surface disin- fection practices.
The physical therapy group was not alone in trying to protect their staff and customers during the pandemic. In their case, they tried a combination of tech- nologies, hoping it would work and make people feel safer. However, the pandemic illustrated the need for standards to be implemented to ensure that proper equip- ment has been tested and is ultimately effective. Without safety and health mea- sures, employees and clients are subject to
unsafe and unhealthy environments that can endanger them. Standards for infec- tion control equipment provide protec- tion against public health issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
A New Standard Arises
The COVID-19 crisis revealed that health and safety measures put in place to fight against airborne viruses were not up to the challenge of a pandemic. Guidance on how to keep employees and clients safe in the face of the crisis was continually evolving as we learned more about the virus and its controls. Sales of equipment like air puri- fiers and disinfection methods grew sub- stantially and were often used with hope more than data on effectiveness.
For companies such as T&M Associates working to mitigate infection risks through new programs or technology, we were of- ten met with limited available data. A new standard was necessary, and on March 31, 2020, ASHRAE, a professional association
otherwise known as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Con- ditioning Engineers, formed its Epidemic Task Force (ETF). After realizing just how ill-prepared the industry was in mitigating COVID-19 and other airborne virus trans- missions, ASHRAE began working on stan- dard measures and solutions.
In July 2023, ASHRAE released Standard 241, Control of Infectious Aerosols, provid- ing specific directions on controls for air- borne viruses. Though the Standard is not a regulatory requirement, it serves as an in- dustry reference to be adopted for minimum safety standards around indoor air quality in various buildings and spaces (e.g., schools, hospitals, residential homes), separate from laboratories and health facilities.
Given the previous lack of standards for such spaces, Standard 241 provides only minimum measures; future updates are expected as the industry evolves. But the importance of having a minimum standard that we, our manufacturers, and employees
30 Occupational Health & Safety | APRIL/MAY 2024
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