Staff Reporter

Ventilation data clears up air quality questions in Ottawa’s city-run LTC homes

March 19, 2022 by Staff Reporter

After months of visiting their father alone at his Ottawa long-term care home, sisters Danielle Mongeon and Sylvie Besner were finally able to see him together this week.

Bernie Mongeon has lived in the city-owned Garry J. Armstrong home for three years, since before the pandemic made visits such a challenge.

Ontario eased that challenge somewhat on Monday, further lifting long-term care restrictions by allowing access to more caregivers and dropping vaccine mandates for visitors.

Besner, who is triple vaccinated, said staff and management at Garry J. Armstrong followed COVID-19 protocols “to the letter.”

Sisters Danielle Mongeon, left, and Sylvie Besner, right, visit their dad Bernie Mongeon in the Garry J. Armstrong long-term care home on Monday. (Ben Andrews/CBC)

“We heard so many horror stories about all the other homes — some homes that had, unfortunately, tragically, so many deaths,” Mongeon said. “For us, we were very happy because we knew that [staff] were always talking to the health people.”

A review of City of Ottawa records suggests ventilation may be another item on the list of protocols staff at Garry J. Armstrong followed “to the letter.”

But while Ottawa’s four municipal long-term care homes appear to have met or exceeded provincial standards, some experts are asking whether those standards need rethinking.

Comprehensive records

CBC News recently obtained comprehensive maintenance and construction records on the four homes the city runs: Garry J. Armstrong, Peter D. Clarke, Centre D’Accueil Champlain and Carleton Lodge.

The records include information on routine maintenance and major lifecycle renovations to heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. They also provide a clearer picture of work done during the pandemic to maintain indoor air quality in the homes, including filter upgrades to help remove tiny viral particles from the air.

The homes also installed standalone HEPA filter units in common areas at each building, said Dan Chenier, the city’s general manager of recreation, cultural and facility services.

CBC did not learn, however, how long after the start of the pandemic each home upgraded and installed the filters.

But according to an expert review of both the data and accompanying statement, the records indicate a history of public health compliance and studious maintenance — which may set these homes apart from many other congregate settings across the province.

“The fact that those records even exist already suggests that you might be talking about the top 10 per cent, 20 per cent of all long-term care homes in Ontario,” said Jeffrey Siegel, a University of Toronto engineering professor who studies ventilation.

Ventilation ‘neglected,’ expert says

In Canada, long-term care residents accounted for just three per cent of all COVID-19 cases but 43 per cent of COVID-19 deaths, according to the latest report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

According to the latest available data, the four Ottawa homes have weathered 28 COVID-19 outbreaks, totalling 374 cases and 13 deaths.

By comparison, a single outbreak in Ottawa’s West End Villa killed 19 residents and prompted a $16-million class action lawsuit from residents and their families.

With Ontario lifting a host of public health measures, some ventilation experts are asking what can be done to help prevent a future variant — or another virus altogether — from repeating the damage of early COVID-19 waves.

“Upgrades should probably be accelerated in the face of the next viral pandemic, which is a question of when, not if,” said David Miller, a Carleton University chemist and indoor environment expert who reviewed the city records.

“Planning for the next pandemic has to include attention to ventilation and filtration.”

It has been a tragedy what has happened in long-term care … and absolutely, ventilation was completely neglected.– Jeffrey Siegel

Although the four homes appear to meet provincial requirements, details like the placement of standalone filters are also important for fully understanding air quality, Miller said.

“They damn well better be doing an efficient job about the quality and the location of their portable filters,” he said.

The provincial standards were simply not designed to keep people safe during an airborne pandemic, other experts added.

“It has been a tragedy, what has happened in long-term care,” Siegel said. “There’s no other word to describe it other than an abject and total failure. And absolutely, ventilation was completely neglected.”

Long-term care homes, like Ottawa’s Garry J. Armstrong pictured here, must meet the ventilation standards of the year they were built. Some ventilation experts are asking if, for some congregate settings, those standards need to change. (Ben Andrews/CBC)

Early in the pandemic, Siegel said, several engineers and indoor air specialists had concerns about inadequate ventilation in congregate settings — but he and others had to balance the urge to raise the alarm with the risk of worsening labour shortages in an already understaffed industry.

Now, Siegel has no such concerns.

“If you look in the standards for long-term care homes, the stuff on ventilation and HVAC generally is a joke. Not only is it completely inadequate for any protection from infectious disease, it’s not even enforceable,” he said.

Government slow to act

Indoor air quality engineers and researchers recognized the importance of quality ventilation for reducing COVID-19 risk long before governments did.

Miller, for example, was one of nearly three dozen Ontario engineers and doctors who signed a letter in November 2020 calling on the World Health Organization to better inform the public about airborne transmission of the virus.

Compared to most of its international peers, Canada was late to acknowledge that risk.

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the organization that writes ventilation labour standards in North America, released its emergency epidemic guidance in October 2021.

The chair of the society’s epidemic task force, William Bahnfleth, told CBC the society began preparing as early as March 2020 as if SARS-CoV-2 were airborne.

West End Villa, owned by Extendicare, is the site of the deadliest COVID-19 outbreak in an Ottawa long-term care home. (Stu Mills/CBC)

Engineer wants ventilation ‘sea change’

A group of Toronto researchers, including Siegel, also penned a pre-print article that found Public Health Ontario’s written pandemic guidance for long-term care homes did not once mention ventilation.

Siegel said this silence must change, especially since residents in congregate settings often lack direct control over their environment and may be more likely to be from racialized or marginalized backgrounds or vulnerable due to health co-morbidities.

Current standards require a building’s ventilation to meet the minimum level for the year it was built. In older buildings, that could mean owners are not legally obligated to upgrade an outdated system.

One solution would be a “continuous meeting of the relevant version of the current standard,” Siegel said, but he recognizes that would mean a “sea change” in the world of ventilation — mainly because it’s bound to get pricey for building owners.

Action is important, however, to protect long-term care residents from COVID-19 — or whatever virus comes next, he said.

As for Danielle Mongeon and Sylvie Besner, they’re just glad to be once again visiting their dad as a family.

“It’s really good for the soul,” Mongeon said.

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Originally Appeared Here

Home Gym Equipment Cleaning and Disinfectant Products

March 19, 2022 by Staff Reporter

FAQs

How often do you need to clean your home gym?

As a general rule, wipe down “high-touch surfaces,”Dr. Nelson recommends using dumbbells, mats, and a bench for every exercise.

“You probably need to clean your home workout space a lot more frequently than you think,”George Nelson, MD is an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist. Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “You can serve as an unwitting courier for bacteria from anything you’ve come in contact with during the day — think: subway rail, grocery cart, your coworker’s desk.”

Dr. Nelson explains that sharing equipment with others, even those who live in the same household, will require you to disinfect surfaces as well as wipe them clean after each use.

Ideally, you should deep clean at least once a month — more often if you use your home gym a lot or if the space has poor circulation or is damp, Dr. Nelson said.

How do I clean my gym equipment at home?

Dr. Nelson suggests that you clean your equipment with plain soap and water. You can also use a damp cloth or a dry dustcloth depending on the equipment’s capabilities. Visible dirt and particles should be removed. “serve as a barricade to protect any resident bugs,”He elaborates.

Notice: Make sure you unplug all electronics before you get started. Also, avoid getting any electrical input or output (e.g. the display) wet. a spin bike.

Next, you should choose a disinfectant which kills viruses and bacteria. Check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website for more information. official guidelines for disinfecting your home.

Is it possible to clean all equipment in the same manner?

Not necessarily.

One word of caution “Many clear plastic displays and housings are made from polycarbonate, which has low chemical resistance to base alcohol solutions found in cleaners such as Lysol, Windex, and bleach,”Explained Alex Davis, a former engineer in plastics and a fitness expert.

Many people have seen the results of hard cleaners on kiosks for credit cards and similar devices. These included cracked panels and erasure keys. Davis suggests washing polycarbonate equipment with mild dish soap and soft water. Sponges can scratch.

You can soak your mats and vacuum any items that you do not use often during your monthly deep cleaning. Also, take extra care to clean those areas that may get forgotten, like the floor, handlebars and chairs, foam rollers and resistance bands, as well as the floor and other areas. You should also remember your headphones and phone.

The most important thing is to let the disinfectant sit for at least a minute on all surfaces. These products are a “dwell time,”Dr. Nelson explains that this refers to the amount of time that the solution must be in contact with bacteria in order for it to work. He suggests that you read the instructions before you use a disinfectant.

Do I need to clean my fitness tracker as well?

Absolutely, yes. Dr. Nelson added: “if you wear the same watch for exercise and daily use, consider taking it off after vigorous exercise to let your skin breath and give it a quick wipe down so sweat and bacteria aren’t trapped up against your skin.”

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Originally Appeared Here

[Eye Plus] 100 years of pure water flows from Seoul’s fountain of life

March 19, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Photographed by Park Hyun-koo

Where water flows, life flourishes, and around a century back, the history of South Korea’s clean water began with Ttukdo Reservoir Water Purification Plant.

Photographed by Park Hyun-koo

In 1903, two American businessmen, Henry Collbran and Harry Bostwick, were granted the rights to set up the water supply system by Emperor Gojong. The two men were also behind the nation’s first electricity supply. They transferred their patent right to Korea Waterworks Co., which started construction in August 1906.

Photographed by Park Hyun-koo

Two years later, in August 1908, the nation’s first waterworks facility, which initially went by the name Gyeongseong Water Pumping Plant, was completed at the Ttukdo Reservoir in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, opening the era of modern water supply here. Starting Sept. 1, it began supplying purified water to residents living inside Yongsan and the area surrounded by the four gates of old Seoul. It produced 12,500 metric tons of water to approximately 165,000 Seoul citizens.

Photographed by Park Hyun-koo

The purification plant, a western-style red-brick mason building, and the slow sand filtration basin were designated as the No. 72 Tangible Cultural Asset of Seoul in 1989.

A part of the site has been turned into a more advanced water purification facility, the Ttukdo Arisu Purification Center. With a capacity to produce 750,000 tons of water, it supplies 400,000 tons per day on average to approximately 1.16 million citizens in Seoul.

Photographed by Park Hyun-koo

Another part of the site was used to build the Waterworks Museum. Inside the main and annex buildings, exhibitions show the stories and artifacts from the centurylong history of the water supply system, and also how the related culture and technology had developed with it.

In the area outside, visitors can experience how facilities, such as pumps and pipes, had been operated back when the plant was first established. An environmental exhibition introduces the importance of clean water in our lives and the danger of water shortage and contamination.

Photos by Park Hyun-koo
Written by Choi Ji-won

By Choi Ji-won ([email protected])

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Originally Appeared Here

Want to reduce your bills? These are the easiest ways to turn your house into an eco home

March 19, 2022 by Staff Reporter

For a long time many of us have been looking at ways to reduce our environmental impact and live more sustainably. With the current energy crisis causing household bills to rocket, this has become even more of an imperative for most people.

So whether you want to be kind to your planet or kind to your wallet, we spoke to some experts about how to eco-fy your home and reduce your bills.

Transform your home

Not everyone has the means, or land, to build an eco home from scratch. Depending on your budget and motivation (environmental or financial) there are a number of things you can do to your home to make it more efficient.

According to Ben Ridley, Director of Architecture for London, for those with a small budget, the first thing you should do is draft-proof all doors, windows and letter boxes. After that, he recommends loft insulation.

“If a slightly bigger budget is available the next steps would be replacing windows, insulating under the floor and insulating external walls,” he adds.

When it comes to insulation it’s worth considering what material to choose. Some of the standard options, though they do a very good job of insulating, are not great for the environment as some are plastic based or their production produces a lot of CO2. Some also can reduce the air quality inside your home.

Whilst there are many more environmentally-friendly insulation options such as stone mineral wool insulation, hemp, straw bales and fibreglass, each of them has their strengths and weaknesses. It’s worth considering your geographical location and the local temperature, the amount of space you have for insulation, and how well sealed your house is before choosing which options you’re going to choose.

Architecture for London recently transformed a standard Edwardian terrace house in North London into an eco home. With a budget of £250,000 (€295,600), the house was given a rear extension, loft conversion and a complete refurbishment inside.

And it’s certainly a reminder that ‘eco’ does not mean ugly.

In the construction process, the team considered the embodied energy of the materials. Embodied energy is the amount of energy required to produce the material.

They opted for a timber suspended floor and frames to avoid the need for steel and concrete slab which have a high embodied energy.

To combat this further they also opted for natural finishes throughout the house, using stone, timber and lime plaster rather than cement based products.

Lime plaster was used throughout the house which provides an airtight layer, helping the house to retain heat.

They also installed MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) which filters air coming into the house of pollen, diesel particulates and NOx (something very useful in big cities like London). It also uses the heat already in your home to warm the air to make your house warm, cosy and very importantly, not damp.

The house was completely reinsulated. It was done externally at the side and rear, and internally at the front with wood fibre as this allowed the house to keep its original Edwardian façade and charm.

Though the overall living space in the house increased, they estimate that there was an approximate 80 per cent reduction in the need to heat the space.

Cost Vs Benefit

Research published by theecoexperts.co.uk calculates the average cost of installing various eco upgrades to a 3 bed house vs the annual saving and the amount of time it takes to recoup the initial cost.

A smart thermostat will set you back around £180 (€215), though it may cost you more if you choose to have someone install it for you. It will likely need replacing every 10 years but with an average yearly saving of £154 (€184), it pays for itself in less than two years.

Roof insulation is around £300 (€358) and will last about 40 years. It’ll reduce your energy bills by around £165 (€197) per year and so will take just less than two years for you to start saving.

Cavity wall insulation on average costs £475 (€567) and will save you on average £185 (€220) per year, meaning it takes 2.5 years for you to have recouped your costs. Over a 20-year period, this will also reduce your carbon emissions by just over 13 tonnes.

Solar panels are where the investment starts to get a little bigger. It costs just under £6,000 (€7200) to install solar panels to your average 3 bedroom house. Though it will save you around £330 (€394) per year on your bills, it does mean it will take just under 12 years for you to break even and start saving money.

However, although the current energy bill price rise is not welcome, it is coming with a rise in the money you can make selling any of your excess solar power back to the national grid. There’s a few things you’ll have to do to get set up for smart export guarantee (SEG) but it’s a nice option if you are planning on adding solar panels to your home.

Other things like double glazing, an air source heat pump and a storage battery for your solar panels are a heavy investment which, if you replace as regularly as recommended, you’re unlikely to ever earn back your money.

But if you’ve got the money and your aim is to reduce your emissions, an air source heat pump is a great feature to install. Over a 20-year period, it’s estimated you’ll save a whopping 50 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Build your own eco home

If you’re dreaming big, you could start from scratch and build your own eco home. But where to start?

We spoke to Alex Johnen who is in the process of building an eco home in Devon to see exactly what it’s like.

One of the biggest difficulties they have had so far is finding a mortgage broker. They’ve only found one lender, The Ecology Building Society, who are willing to give them a mortgage on a self-build, non-traditional home.

And the interest rate is 4 per cent, whereas most mortgages in the UK are somewhere between 2-3.5 per cent.

“Most self-builders switch to a different mortgage once they’ve completed the build but we are anticipating that we may not be able to do this because even once built, we still might not find anyone to lend on a ‘non-standard’ construction,” says Alex.

“The problem is that this issue would put off a lot of people who don’t have lots of cash in the bank from doing a build like this.”

Planning an eco build

Alex and her partner are planning to build a 2/3 bedroom, one-storey home with a curved roof.

“We are using as much natural building material as possible for this, so using timber frame and hemp-crete for the main structure, then a corrugated metal curved roof over the top,” Alex explains to Euronews Green.

All the windows on the property will be triple glazed but added to that, they’ve planned the position of the windows very precisely to help optimise the sun’s power to heat the house.

Like the house conversion by Architecture for London, Alex is opting for low embodied materials in her build. The materials she’s chosen, such as timber, hemp, lime and clay, also sequester carbon which helps to fight climate change.

She’s also considered the toxicity of the materials – as they’re aiming for the house to be very airtight to reduce its energy usage, they need to ensure it’s a healthy space to live in.

There’s a few things they’d love to include in their design but have had to compromise on due to budget.

They were quoted £50,000 (€59,645) for a ground source heat pump so that’s gone from the plan. But as their overall design should ensure the house is very well insulated, they’re hoping it shouldn’t need much heating and have opted for a couple of electric radiators.

Furthermore, with solar panels having a large initial cost, they haven’t been completely abandoned but instead, Alex and her partner have decided they’re not the first priority and can be added to the house in the future when they have a bit more cash.

Although Alex is working to a budget, she hasn’t chosen the cheapest possible options for all aspects of her home.

“It is possible to be much more low key and create very eco houses using straw bales and lime/clay,” Alex explains.

“These are easy to build (especially if your house is not a curve!) and material is cheap BUT it is hard to find builders who are familiar with these building techniques and materials.”

The Future Living Home

At the current Ideal Home Show, taking place at Olympia London until March 27, there is the ‘Future Living Home’ on display.

This modular, self-build home took just four days to construct, unlike traditionally built houses which take an average of 22 weeks.

It’s made from 70 per cent recycled steel and is filled with a range of eco-gadgets you’re likely to see become more popular around the home.

Through a combination of reducing build time, using sustainable and energy efficient materials, the idea is that housing like this will not only reduce your bills but the cost of house itself.

The house is equipped with a Solivus arc, a new design of solar panel that isn’t attached to your roof, meaning that you can continue to benefit from your investment, even if you move house.

One of the other gadgets is the Briiv air purifier, which is made using 90 per cent natural and renewable materials, uses biodegradable filters and is considered to be one of the most sustainable air filters. Although hopefully one day, our air won’t be so dirty that we need to filter it anymore.

The Future Living House also considers your life outside of home. As we all know electric cars are becoming more popular and so we need better solutions for charging both at home and at work. Myenergi have installed a range of EV chargers to the house, all made in the UK and compatible with solar and wind power.

Watch the video above to learn more about the future of eco homes.

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Originally Appeared Here

Is the avocado in water storage hack safe?

March 19, 2022 by Staff Reporter

It’s a tale as old as time: You spend days waiting for an avocado to ripen only for it to go from an impenetrable, rock-hard round to a brown, mushy mess seemingly overnight. It’s a frustrating reality that’s not only inspired many (many) memes but also sent plenty of people searching for a solution — so much so that the internet’s become home to numerous tricks and tips for slowing down (or speeding up) the avocado-ripening process.

The avocado water storage hack

One of the latest fixes that folks can’t seem to stop talking about? Submerging ripe avocados in water and refrigerating until you’re ready to use them. Apparently, this kitchen hack — which recently went viral on Facebook — is a sure-fire way to maintain peak ripeness for weeks or, in one Facebook user‘s words, “for-freaking-ever.” And people on TikTok and Facebook seem to agree, calling the trick “legit,” asserting that “this shit really works,” and claiming their produce was “perfect” after storing it for four (!!) weeks.

While the hack has gone viral (and seemingly for good reason), you might want to think twice before bathing your avos in containers of H2O for days, at least according to TODAY. Here’s why: “The main concern is with the possibility that any residual human pathogens (i.e. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., etc.) that may be residing on the avocado surface, may potentially multiply during the storage when submerged in water,” a spokesperson for the Food and Drug Administration told the publication.

ICYDK, Listeria monocytogenes is a type of bacteria that can survive a range of conditions and environments, including refrigeration and even freezing temperatures, and cause the infection, listeriosis. More commonly known as “listeria,” this foodborne illness can lead to severe sickness, especially in pregnant people, folks over the age of 65, and those with weakened immune systems, according to the Mayo Clinic. Similarly, Salmonella is another bacteria that can cause symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, chills, and in severe cases, life-threatening complications.

But can’t you just disinfect or wash the rinds of the avocados before submerging them in water to prevent the spread of listeria? Sure, you can but it might not make much of a difference. See, studies performed by FDA scientists have shown that the bacteria “has the potential to infiltrate and internalise into the pulp of avocados when submerged in refrigerated dump tanks within 15 days during refrigerated storage,” the organisation’s spokesperson told TODAY. “In this case, even surface disinfecting the avocado skin prior to slicing would not be able to remove the contamination.”

Image Credit: Dainis Graveris/Unsplash

In one word? Womp. But just because this particular hack comes with a heavy dose of caution from the FDA, doesn’t mean you have to resign to a life of short-lived green avocados. There are other tips and tricks that can preserve your produce without posing potential health risks. For example, placing a ripe or almost ripe avocado in the refrigerator can extend the lifespan of the fruit (yes, fruit!) for a few days. You can also try freezing avocados, which is an effective long-term method for maintaining ideal ripeness, according to the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

If your avo is already cut open, make sure to leave the pit and skin intact, tightly wrap it in plastic wrap or seal in an airtight container to prevent oxidation and browning, and store it in the fridge like such to get an extra day or two, according to the University of Nebraska Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Splashing it with lemon or lime juice can also fend off browning and keep you ‘cados green, Morgan Bolling, senior editor at Cook’s Country Magazine, previously told Shape.

The bottom line: With so many methods for making your produce last longer, why risk it with one that’s an avocadon’t?

This story first appeared on www.shape.com

© 2021 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. Licensed from Shape.com and published with permission of Meredith Corporation. Reproduction in any manner in any language in whole or in part without prior written permission is prohibited.

Shape and the Shape Logo are registered trademarks of Meredith Corporation. Used under License.

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Originally Appeared Here

Pamplin Media Group – Warm Springs tribe collects drinking water with solar panels

March 18, 2022 by Staff Reporter

New solar system provides much-needed drinking water for people on the Reservation

Warner Williams Jr. cannot drink the water delivered to his house by the Warm Springs utilities.

“There have been reports of bad algae in the water system,” says Williams. “They tried filter systems, but the algae would clog the filters.”

Williams resorted to buying cases of water for his family.

For the last three weeks, though, Williams uses solar power to turn the moisture in the air into pure drinking water.

“It tastes really good!” says Williams. He especially likes that he doesn’t have to plug anything in. The sun powers the panel that generates the water and the pump that sends the water to a special faucet in his house.

His solar panels deliver about one to two gallons a day. “If it’s super cloudy, it might not produce as much,” says Williams.

The Warm Springs Reservation has had long-term, stubborn water issues. This latest solution comes as a collaboration between the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and SOURCE Global, a company that designs off-grid water systems throughout the world.

“Right now, this community has some pretty significant needs,” says Jim Souers, chief executive officer of the Warm Springs Economic Development Corporation.

The project provides panels for 36 households who get the water piped right into their homes. May 22, they turned on an array of 200 panels that generates 150 gallons a day.

“This is where the special magic’s happening,” says Souers, pointing to the mechanics inside a panel. “Because it’s hot on one side and it’s cooler on the other side, this panel slowly collects droplets of water.”

Essentially, the system uses solar power to distill the moisture in the air into pure water. Too pure, in fact, according to Souers. He says minerals make the water healthier.

“It takes the pure water molecule and there’s a mineralization packet the water flows through to make it what we think is normal drinking water,” says Souers. The mineral recipe for this water combines the profiles of water at Opal Springs and Rattle Snake Springs, a place many reservation residents get their drinking water.

People who don’t have panels at their homes come to the solar array on Mondays to pick up their drinking water in 2-gallon jugs.

Souers says they plan to build out the array, so it produces 750 gallons a day and ultimately provides 6,000 gallons of water storage for the community.

The system doesn’t work when temperatures drop below 37 degrees, so it’s not a constant water supply, but a dependable and important supplement for a community that needs drinking water.

Each of the 200 solar panels cost $2,000. A private donor paid the $400,000 for the original field. The project used some COVID relief funding. The CTWS will fund expanding the project.

Williams and everyone else get their water for free.

Williams also has a personal investment in the project. “I worked with SOURCE in the hydro-panel field.” He set up the frames, learned how to install the firmware, and he now maintains his own panels and for other customers.

His favorite part is seeing his community benefit. “Every Monday, I see a bunch of people there picking up water.”

You count on us to stay informed and we depend on you to fund our efforts. Quality local journalism takes time and money. Please support us to protect the future of community journalism.

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Originally Appeared Here

Why you may want to get an air purifier if you work from home

March 18, 2022 by Staff Reporter

“The advent of COVID-19 caused the shift of working pattern to work from home remotely for many employees. However, homes may not be a good working environment, compared to conventional office settings with better air conditioning and ventilation systems,” the study concluded.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, poor air quality poses a significant threat to well-being. Short-term symptoms may include irritated eyes, nose and throat, as well as headaches and dizziness. However, long-term exposure to poor IAQ can cause respiratory diseases, heart disease and cancer, according to the EPA.

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Originally Appeared Here

EPA Announces the “Clean Air in Buildings Challenge” to Help Building Owners and Operators Improve Indoor Air Quality and Protect Public Health

March 18, 2022 by Staff Reporter

Guidance follows through on President Biden’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan

March 17, 2022

WASHINGTON (March 17, 2022) – Today, as part of President Biden’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan released March 3rd, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is releasing the “Clean Air in Buildings Challenge,” a call to action and a concise set of guiding principles and actions to assist building owners and operators with reducing risks from airborne viruses and other contaminants indoors. The Clean Air in Buildings Challenge highlights a range of recommendations and resources available to assist with improving ventilation and indoor air quality, which can help to better protect the health of building occupants and reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread.

“Protecting our public health means improving our indoor air quality. Today, EPA is following through on President Biden’s plan to move our nation forward in a healthy, sustainable way as we fight COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, building managers and facility staff have been on the frontlines implementing approaches to protect and improve indoor air quality to reduce risks and keep their occupants safe and healthy, and we are so grateful for their efforts,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “The Clean Air in Buildings Challenge is an important part of helping us all to breathe easier.”

Infectious diseases like COVID-19 can spread through the inhalation of airborne particles and aerosols. In addition to other layered prevention strategies like vaccination, actions to improve ventilation, filtration and other proven air cleaning strategies can reduce the risk of exposure to particles, aerosols, and other contaminants, and improve indoor air quality and the health of building occupants.

Key actions outlined in the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge include:

Create a clean indoor air action plan,
Optimize fresh air ventilation,
Enhance air filtration and cleaning, and
Conduct community engagement, communication and education.

While the recommended actions cannot completely eliminate risks, they will reduce them. The Clean Air in Buildings Challenge presents options and best practices for building owners and operators to choose from, and the best combination of actions for a building will vary by space and location. Such steps would depend upon public health guidance; who and how many people are in the building; the activities that occur in the building; outdoor air quality; climate; weather conditions; the installed heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment; and other factors. American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds can be used to supplement investments in ventilation and indoor air quality improvements in public settings.

EPA and the White House COVID-19 Response Team consulted with the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Energy, and several other Federal agencies with roles in promoting healthy indoor air quality in buildings to develop the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge. Today’s announcement also highlights an array of resources to help building owners and operators meet the Challenge. The document will be made available in Spanish, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, Arabic and Russian.

More information on the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge is available: Clean Air in Buildings Challenge.

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Originally Appeared Here

Remove the hassle of family dinner and turn it into an enjoyable moment, every night

March 18, 2022 by Staff Reporter

(The Daily Dish) Beehive Meals offers healthy, home cooked meals delivered directly to your doorstep. Saving you time, money and allowing you to spend the quality time you need with those most important in your life – Family.

For some of us, we are fortunate enough to have someone at home who has the extra time (and energy) to make home-cooked meals and we can all sit down and create these same memories we had as children. The sad thing is that we all aren’t this fortunate and as prices rise across the nation, more and more parents are having to go back to work or are working longer hours or multiple jobs to be able to provide for their families.

Not only are we faced with more families where both parents are having to go back to work but also where there is a single parent taking care of all of the responsibilities in the house. After working a full day, you have homework, cleaning, laundry… The list goes on and on. Why not take some of the stress off by removing the hassle of making a shopping list, going to the store and then making dinner?

Those are precious minutes that can be spent with your loved ones, talking about their day and laughing or teaching them about the importance of togetherness. Because when you find something that works for you, you want to share it, and Beehive Meals was created for this exact reason.

A company designed to make it as easy as possible for busy parents looking to still spend quality time around the dinner table with their family while still enjoying homecooked meals and also make it affordable.

Customers simply find an open date within their county and place an order. They then prepare all the meals about 48 hours before the reserved delivery date, seal them in vacuumed-sealed packaging, freezer them, and deliver them straight to your front door.

Because of their extremely loyal customer base, they do tend to sell out quickly. Customers remove the ingredients from the bag, cook them in the crockpot, maybe add a side or two, and then enjoy together as a family.

If you would like to sign up to receive your meals or for additional information visit their website. Don’t forget to use CODE: JBCOOKINGHOST and get $10 off any regular order.

*Sponsored Content.

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– Researchers create more accurate measurement of indoor air pollutants

March 18, 2022 by Staff Reporter

18 March 2022

Funded by the Met Office, researchers are creating tools that can enable greater understanding of indoor air quality.

The new project “Indoor Air Quality Emissions & Modelling System (IAQ-EMS)”, is funded by the Met Office and UK Research and Innovation through the Strategic Priorities Fund. It aims to increase the understanding of indoor air pollutants and enable people planning or assessing an indoor space to build an accurate picture of the likely sources, levels and risks of pollutants.

While significant progress has been made in measuring outdoor air quality, the indoor environment poses additional challenges with multiple pollution sources, different sized spaces, and varying levels of ventilation.

In its first phase, researchers will take high-performance mobile air quality measuring instruments to different sites in the region and create a detailed inventory of indoor pollutants. These include cleaning products, pollution from cooking and heating, and volatile organic compounds given off by carpets or furniture.

Once this is completed, the team will start to describe the distribution of pollutants, model how they break down in the environment and get dispersed throughout an indoor space.

“We want to know, for example, how a pollutant moves from the kitchen into a different space, such as a bedroom. Because pollution produced during cooking is warm, it rises, so it could be that upstairs spaces are more affected by pollution than we realise. Our toolkit will help model and predict these scenarios to ultimately help people plan and manage their spaces to minimise risks,” said lead researcher, Dr Christian Pfrang.

A range of environments will be modelled, from residential spaces to offices, schools, care homes and transport spaces.

All the data collected will be used to produce a series of tools that will:

• Catalogue different indoor pollutants and model likely concentrations in different indoor environments
• Explain the detailed processes involved in chemical degradation and transport
• Enable models of different indoor environments to be built showing the likely levels and distribution of pollutants and effects of interventions (opening windows, for example)

Sarah Gooding, Met Office SPF Senior Project Manager for Clean Air, said: “The Met Office is delighted to award a Clean Air Programme Grant to Birmingham University, who will lead a consortium of researchers to facilitate investigation into Indoor Air emissions and the correlation with Outdoor Air quality. This is of particular importance as we try to further understand our exposure to harmful pollutants in both the indoor and outdoor environments.

“This work will further our knowledge of the effects of Indoor Air emissions and possible strategies to mitigate against their harmful effects. It will also enable people to undertake changes to promote a cleaner living environment and better air quality, helping to improve health.”

The three-year project also includes collaborators from the University of Reading, Cranfield University and the University of California.

More information…

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Originally Appeared Here