By Ellen Brockley and Alex Ainley

It’s come to this: Parents in New York City’s public schools, rightfully concerned that students are breathing air that may be dangerous or affect their ability to learn, are sneaking CO2 monitors into their children’s backpacks. CO2 buildup is common inside buildings, particularly older, poorly ventilated ones. And parents surmised that if the school’s handling of CO2 was lacking, it could indicate that conditions are not optimized to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread, too.

“The device gave her a quick way to assess how much fresh air was flowing through the school. Low levels of CO2 would indicate that it was well-ventilated, reducing her son’s odds of catching the coronavirus,” reported The New York Times this week. What she found was worrying.

“She quickly discovered that during lunch, CO2 levels in the cafeteria rose to nearly double those recommended by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She shared what she’d learned with the principal and asked if students could eat outside instead.”

Around the world, the COVID-19 tragedy has awakened many people to the risks posed by poorly configured or ventilated indoor spaces. The British government recently said it would put CO2  monitors in all state schools, and New York City is right behind them.

From carbon to COVID

The use of CO2 as a proxy for the proper management of indoor environments is something Microshare has been advocating for years. Studies show that calibrating HVAC systems to optimize temperature and humidity levels retards the spread of infections and keeps CO2 buildup from reaching damaging levels. This is something our clients measure with a sensor solution called Environmental Monitoring, and it provides vital data to building operators that they need to take steps to address the problem.

Sometimes these steps can be as simple as opening a window. But they can also be expensive: Poor data can indicate an aging HVAC system simply is not capable of doing the job, or that a hermetically sealed 1970s vintage skyscraper is a basket case – “a sick building,” in Commercial Real Estate terminology, that is probably heading for the glue factory.

Where’s the beefing?

But shockingly, there are many companies, government agencies and other institutions who prefer not to know. Where, one wonders, is the supposedly all-powerful teachers’ union on this? What about the American Medical Association, or the myriad of state and national level environmental agencies around the world?

The fact is, when the data is inconvenient, after all, it not only creates a need to take action. It also raises liability issues and the ugly topic of spending money.

Phyllis Horner, a workplace environment and psychologist and upcoming guest on the Manifest Density podcast, says this kind of denial is a major obstacle to safeguarding people.

“I’ve very often heard, ‘well, we’re going to focus on the things we can control within the budget we already have,’ “says Horner, CEO of Great Places and Spaces. It was a magical time when people had the right and ability to ignore all that. Now, I think they do so at their peril.”

What you can’t see can hurt you

If there’s any lesson from COVID-19 we should be able to agree upon, it’s that the health of indoor spaces was a blind spot before the pandemic. Very few people understand the extent to which indoor environments that we all spend most of our time in could be a threat to productivity, health and even life.

Now, we know. In many cases, the adjustments necessary to fix such problems are inexpensive and commonsense actions. Open a window; install a ceiling fan; make sure heating and air conditions units are working properly, because if they’re not, they may be the source of surplus carbon emissions.

The US Environmental Protection Agency, which recommends that air quality sensors be used in any space that will be densely populated, defines three broad actions that should be taken to deal with poor air quality.

• Ventilation: This is the most obvious move when air quality is sub-standard, and it can be fairly easy to increase natural ventilation, such as through windows and doors. In a large building, though, particularly those build in the late 20 century without windows that open, this sometimes mean reconfiguring ducts and possibly increasing energy use. Reconfiguring or even replacing an HVAC system designed before the importance of indoor air quality was widely understood can be very expensive. But so, too, can:
  • the liability claims of aggrieved employees;
  • the retention and recruitment problems stemming from poor air quality;
  • the productivity loss that academic studies have chronicled in high CO² environments;
  • the higher sick day rates suffered by companies that don’t control humidity – and thus infection spread – properly.

• Source Control: Ventilation may be the most obvious thing to adjust when air quality is poor but understanding where emissions might be coming from can be just as important – and cost nothing to address. Obviously, human activity will invariably create carbon emissions as we exhale. No one’s recommending with stop breathing. But buildings of all sizes have other sources of carbon, particulate matter and humidity. Some building materials and furnishings can deteriorate and emit asbestos-containing insulation. Newly installed flooring, upholstery or carpet often produces a chemical emission. Cleaning products or industrial solvents also have emissions. And central heating and cooling systems can produce excess moisture that defeats efforts to control temperature and humidity.
• Air Filters and Cleaners: EPA is fairly skeptical that this idea ­– marketed by manufacturers as a silver bullet – actually does much to help. “A very efficient collector with a low air-circulation rate will not be effective, nor will a cleaner with a high air-circulation rate but a less efficient collector,” the agency says. While such filters will remove some things from the air ­– pollution elements like coal dust, cigarette smoke and other particulates – the agency sees little evidence they can help with CO² or viruses.

Just as what you can’t see can hurt you, you can’t fix a problem that you don’t know about. Launching an Indoor Air Quality Monitoring program is a logical first step in the direction of ensuring safe environments for children of all ages.

Ellen Brockley | Vice President of the company’s Microsoft Alliance | EBrockley@microshare.io

Alex Ainley | Director of Sales, EMEA | AAinley@microshare.io