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Staff Reporter

Over 300 water licences to drill new wells issued in December

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Muscat – Three hundred and twenty three water licences were issued in December 2021 to drill new wells, according to statistics issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources (MAFWR).

The statistics show that the Governorate of South Batinah was the highest in obtaining licences to dig new wells, with 81 licences followed by 76 in Dhahirah, 61 in North Batinah, 52 in Dakhliyah, 23 in North Sharqiyah, 21 in South Sharqiyah, , three each in Al Wusta and Buraimi, two in Dhofar and one in Musandam.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources stated the number of factories established for the production and bottling of pure water in the sultanate until the end of 2021 reached 35 factories.

The ministry added that most of these factories are located in the Governorate of Muscat (9) followed by South Sharqiah (8) and Dhofar (4) with the rest of the factories located in other governorates.

MAFWR said it deals with these projects in accordance with the technical requirements and gives conditional approvals in coordination with other government agencies.

The ministry is developing well-studied plans for such projects, by proposing the allocation of water abundant places for the establishment of these projects, and encourages Omani investors to establish such vital projects.

According to MAFWR, Oman received an average rainfall of 123mm in 2020. In 2019 it received an average of 183mm of rainfall.

Meanwhile, the volume of surface water running off the land in the sultanate during the year 2020 was estimated at 913mn cubic metres compared to 303mn cubic metres estimated in 2019.

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Government experts to open 2022 Better Buildings Summit

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Whitehall policy leads who have helped shape upcoming shake-up of the Building Regulations will be speaking about major changes in 2022 for efficiency, IAQ and comfort requirements

 

Experts from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) will be joining H&V News to open its 2022 Better Buildings Summit on 29 March.

Jack Hulme, DLUHC technical policy lead, and his colleague Victoria Tink, department policy lead on Part L of the Building Regulations, will jointly host a discussion on how healthy indoor environments can be delivered alongside the decarbonisation of the UK’s buildings.  The discussion will look at how a series of planned changes over the next three years will impact both commercial and domestic buildings.

An uplift in the Building Regulations that is coming into effect in England from June will introduce wide ranging changes that will directly impact energy efficiency, ventilation and overheating-prevention in new buildings.

Mr Hulme and Ms Tink will explain the implications of the legislation for the HVAC sector. They will also take questions from our audience about the further legislative changes that will be introduced to the way the industry design’s buildings and their vital systems up to 2025.

The DLUHC session opens a full day of discussion and debate at the summit. This programme will focus on delivering a more holistic approach to ensure both new and existing buildings in the UK are more efficient, safe and comfortable for the long-term benefit of occupants and operators.

The HVAC sector will be expected to play a key role in creating buildings that can realistically improve occupant health and comfort and we will be joined by a range of experts working across building engineering, including the training and policy sides of the sector

The programme will build on H&V News’ previous summits with a panel discussion on indoor air quality and what new benchmarks may now be needed to ensure growing public concerns about air flow in buildings are being addressed.

A H&V News live event heard late last year how efforts to improve air quality within commercial, public and domestic buildings are too often undermined by limited overall knowledge about adapting different available technologies such as ventilation and air purification systems for specific properties.  March’s summit will look at how this may be changing, if at all.

Other sessions at the 2022 Better Buildings Summit will focus on how net zero targets can be achieved in the UK’s existing building stock without compromising occupant comfort and health, as well as how the value of wellness can be measured by building operators.

Fire safety commitments in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire and the subsequent public inquiry will be the subject of other important discussions at the summit, along with a panel on how best to effectively introduce more automated, data-led building systems at scale

The full summit programme and information on how to sign up for the conference can be found here.

For those wishing to the discuss the remaining sponsorship opportunities at the summit, please contact Kavita Brown, H&V News sales director at ‘[email protected]’.

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Cameron County reports 5 coronavirus-related deaths and 2,752 positive cases

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Cameron County on Monday reported five coronavirus-related deaths and 2,752 positive cases of COVID-19.

The report covers Saturday, Jan. 22, through Monday, Jan. 24.

A man and woman in their 60s from Brownsville, a woman in her 30s from Harlingen, a woman in her 90s from Los Fresnos and a man in his 50s from Rio Hondo died as a result of the virus, according to a report released by the Cameron County Public Health Department. Of the five people who died, one person was fully vaccinated. 

The reported deaths raises the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the county to 2,058. 

Of the 2,752 positive cases reported in the county, 2,002 were confirmed reports based on PCR testing, 667 were probable reports based on antigen testing, and 83 were self-reported based on at-home testing. 

Vaccination efforts continue across Cameron County; currently, 81.39% of the population five years and older is fully vaccinated.

Cameron County Public Health continues to emphasize the importance of following COVID-19 prevention methods:

  •  Get vaccinated
  •  Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
  •  Avoid touching your face with unwashed hands
  •  Wear a mask in public indoor settings even if you are fully vaccinated
  •  Practice social distance and keep about 6 feet between yourself and others
  •  Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow
  •  Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily
  •  If you are sick, call your healthcare provider and home isolate

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Investors emphasize ESG in properties: Climate risk, social & health factors affect a building’s future value

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(Photo: Shutterstock)

Investors are rethinking sustainability in their bids for new properties, with factors like improving resilience, reducing carbon emissions and enhancing employee well-being top of mind, according to a new report from JLL. 

“The role of buildings in creating a more sustainable future is now in the spotlight,” says Lori Mabardi, ESG research director at JLL. “Stakeholder pressure is rising where regulators, occupiers, lenders and investors are expecting more from the built sector.”

Mabardi says more and more owners are assessing the direct impact of climate change on their portfolios early and modelling future risk: “We’ve seen extreme weather grow four-fold in the past four decades in the U.S alone,” she says. “Real estate investors, landlords and occupiers are increasingly understanding that resilience needs to come into the equation.  This could mean taking measures to address areas of weakness in the asset itself, or taking a portfolio view and evaluating exposure to a number of risks like wildfire or drought.”

She notes that countries like the UK, France, Germany and Canada have already established mandatory climate-related financial risk disclosure, which is under consideration here in the US.

Assessing a building’s carbon footprint is also critical: owners that fail to do so “will soon start to fall behind,” according to Emily Chadwick, ESG risk and valuation director at JLL.

“There are dozens of studies indicating a value differential associated with more energy efficient real estate,” she says. “However, decarbonizing an asset takes planning, investment, and time. Waiting to act exposes an asset to the risk of stranding and investors then risk a brown discount.”

She adds that “not all green certifications equate to a long-term low carbon footprint – some are more focused on initial sustainable design than ongoing operations – and taking this into consideration will reset the value conversation.”

Promoting the health of tenants should also be top of mind, JLL experts say, citing Allen and McComber research that shows that in the US alone, the savings from an improved indoor air environment are between $25 billion to $150 billion a year. Effective rents for healthy buildings in the U.S. also command between 4.4% and 7.7% more rent per square foot than their peers that are not WELL or FITWEL certified, according to MIT research.  

 “Changing expectations mean that buildings need to meet new requirements, for people using them or the capital investing in them,” says Guy Grainger, Global Head of Sustainability Services & ESG at JLL. “Whether it’s health & wellbeing, climate risk or social impact, the future value of the building depends on getting these right.”

ESG is expected to play an increasing role in commercial real estate in 2022, according to a trends report issued in October by PwC US and the Urban Land Institute. Around 82% of respondents said they consider ESG elements when making operational or investment decisions, and a growing consensus sees the property sector as bearing much of the responsibility for climate change. 

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Poor home air quality linked to respiratory health issues for First Nations children, new study finds

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A new study looking at housing conditions in remote First Nations in northwestern Ontario associated poor air quality with respiratory health issues for young children.

Results of the study, a joint effort between the CHEO Research Institute, along with the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday.

The study found that 25 per cent of children involved required medical evacuation for respiratory illness, with just over 20 per cent of children admitted to hospital during the first two years of life.

Dr. Thomas Kovesi, a researcher with the CHEO Research Institute and pediatric respirologist who co-authored the study, said the houses involved were “really small” and had an average of nearly seven occupants.

“The amount of people in these houses overwhelm what these houses are capable of,” Kovesi said in an interview with CBC News.

“We need much more funding to maintain existing housing. To me, one of the jawdropping moments in this research was going into a house built in the mid-80s, and the people living in the house told me the house was scheduled for demolition.

“If we do nothing but provide the funding for these houses to last three times as long, we’re going to end up with three times as many houses.”

Dr. Tom Kovesi is a researcher with the CHEO Research Institute and is a pediatric respirologist. (Tom Kovesi/Twitter)

Kovesi said the project involved installing air quality monitors inside the homes for five days and assessments done by housing inspectors. As well, researchers went to the community’s nursing station to examine health records.

Those findings showed that 85 per cent of the houses lacked controlled ventilation, while 44 per cent had water penetration in the walls. High amounts of interior surface area mould and bacterial residue known to cause wheezing was also found.

“At the end of this, we could correlate what we found in the health records with issues involving the indoor air quality,” Kovesi said.

‘We now have solid data’

The study was funded by Health Canada and Indigenous Services Canada.

Responding to the study results, Nishnawbe Aski Nation issued a statement calling on the federal government to address housing conditions in First Nations.

“We have known for years that the quality of health and housing are linked, and we now have solid data to support this,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Derek Fox said in a written news release. 

“We have been advocating for years for substantial improvements to housing, but the government keeps asking for proof that the [mouldy], drafty houses many of our members are forced to live in are connected to their poor health.”

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Movie theater safety during COVID, the sequel

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Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and a year after The Times asked public health experts and film exhibition industry leaders about its effect on attending movies safely, what has changed? We have seen new, more contagious variants. We have seen more incidents of resistance to protocols, keeping the behavior of strangers the most troubling of wild cards. But we also have seen a massive accumulation of knowledge about the disease and how it spreads — and the introduction of a key element making cinema attendance safer: the vaccines.

“As opposed to the last time we talked, there are a lot more tools in the toolkit that make gatherings such as going to a movie theater much more possible” to do safely, says Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco who also spoke with The Times in November 2020. “In the past, we didn’t have vaccines. We didn’t have any chance of treating people early. Now we have oral pills for COVID, monoclonal antibodies — and vaccines, which is the most important difference.”

Checking in again with the health experts and industry leader interviewed for that November 2020 story reveals that recommendations remain largely the same: Wear masks indoors (though now medical-grade masks such as N95s are suggested in the face of the much more contagious Omicron variant) and maintain social distancing. All three agree getting vaccinated, including the booster shot, is the most important piece of the puzzle.

But while there’s visible exhaustion, even frustration, among the medical professionals, there’s also an upbeat message: With more agency than a year ago, audiences can make moviegoing a safer experience, depending on their comfort with levels of risk — and, of course, the behavior of those around them. “The overall theme is layering things on top of each other so you’re not putting all your eggs in one basket,” Chin-Hong says. “So when I say you get one hour of protection from a surgical mask, that doesn’t assume vaccines or ventilation. It all increases based on these other strategies you have.”

While new case numbers remain high in California (as of this writing, the 125,861 new cases reported last week represented a 1.8% increase from the previous week), the numbers continue to show overwhelming advantages for the vaccinated. In the latest data posted by the state on its official COVID-tracking site, the unvaccinated were 4.1 times more likely to contract the virus than the vaccinated. Chin-Hong cited data from multiple sources indicating the vaccinated were considered nearly 90% less likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19, should they suffer a breakthrough infection, and “close to 100%” less likely to die from the disease, other serious illnesses in conjunction with COVID-19 aside.

“I was [on shift] in the hospital last week and pretty much nobody I took care of was boosted,” says Chin-Hong. “It’s pretty much all nonvaccinated and immunocompromised.”

To health experts such as Chin-Hong and Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Assn., this means people have effective tools to make activities such as movie attendance much safer.

“People should not be hiding away,” says Benjamin. “I think it’s OK to go to the theater, but go with protection. And your eyes open.

“Outside is better than inside, so if you’re going to the movies, be fully vaccinated and masked. I wasn’t a fan of vaccine passports before, but I’m there now. There’s equitable access to vaccines. If a business wants you to show a vaccine card, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. I would require people to wear a mask in common areas. And of course, I’d give caution to people with underlying medical problems.”

Chin-Hong supported the idea of requiring proof of vaccination to attend indoor events: “I think the minimum is two [doses]; more and more people are moving toward boosters as the minimum. Again, not putting all eggs in one basket: If you’re vaccinated, you should still be wearing a mask.”

The health experts agreed with Patrick Corcoran, vice president and chief communications officer for the National Assn. of Theatre Owners, that there still has not been a COVID-19 outbreak conclusively tied to movie theater attendance — “nowhere in the world,” he says. Of course, there are multiple factors making such a tie extremely difficult to definitively establish, as opposed to, say, certain events that have been deemed “super spreaders” through contact tracing and other evidence. That’s still a case of the absence of bad news potentially being good news.

“The key has been governmental policies opening up vaccinations to all adults, as well as CDC revising its policies and deferring to state and local conditions,” Corcoran says. “We still have [industry-standard safety protocols] CinemaSafe, but cinemas should look to their localities for the proper way to operate.

“The other major change has been [improved] understanding of how the virus spreads. The initial recommendation from almost every public health official was to disinfect and clean surfaces; that has proven to not really be the way it’s transmitted — it’s aerosol.”

Corcoran cites vaccines as the most important factor in movie attendance maintaining a low risk level. “The other thing has been ventilation,” he says. “In movie theaters, the ventilation is surprisingly good compared to other places. A 10-screen cineplex will typically have 11 air-conditioning units, sometimes 12. You’re not sharing air from auditorium to auditorium. Air in movie theaters tends to rise; it’s sucked out and replaced over a fairly brief time.”

Chin-Hong agrees: “Movie theaters are well ventilated. Some of these new cineplexes are like going on a plane, essentially, or another well-ventilated area. That’s very little risk.”

Corcoran said locations and activities where spread has been high — nursing homes, churches, family gatherings, weddings — “have to do with close, intimate contact and a lot of activity. At a movie theater, you’re sedentary for the most part. Your respiration is lower.”

Members of Corcoran’s organization comply with local mandates; would they impose mask and vaccination mandates where they aren’t in place locally?

“Some do,” says Corcoran. “Obviously, it will vary from company to company. In the southern tier of the country, there have been very few mandates. Some theaters have required masks anyway, but it’s hard to get in front of your public health officials.”

Some of those local rules (or lack thereof), however, can increase risk. Individuals should find out if the theater they want to attend conforms to rules within their comfort zone. Does that locality or cinema require proof of vaccination? Does it enforce a two-seat buffer between parties to maintain social distancing?

“Being shoulder to shoulder with someone during Omicron is not a good idea,” says Benjamin.

While the health experts, appeared visibly more exhausted and frustrated than a year ago, they expressed hope. Both agreed with recent reports that the Omicron variant may have passed its peak in some areas, and both cited the vaccines as having the potential to return society to some semblance of normalcy as it was thought of in 2019.

Movie attendance seems to be on the rebound. While 2021 box office was down 61% from 2019 levels, that still represented an improvement from the dark days of 2020 — and attendance trended upward throughout the year, according to statistics provided by Corcoran. Rescued, of course, by a certain web-slinger (“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is the only billion-dollar grosser of the pandemic), box office leaped from 11% of 2019 first-quarter figures to 73.3% of 2019 fourth-quarter figures during the comparable periods last year.

And while the behavior of strangers remains the top concern of those interviewed, Corcoran says the public acts of belligerence have largely passed by cinemas.

“We have seen it from time to time. It’s no secret that there are people who are very militant on both sides of these protocols. We see people going in both directions. A recent study from NRG shows older customers — who are more hesitant to do anything — they’re more hesitant to go to church than to a movie theater.”

So how does that affect theater employees’ ability or willingness to enforce policies such as mask-wearing during the show? Corcoran says, “If it’s a legal responsibility, if your business is going to be fined, you’re going to enforce it. Nobody wants to lose a customer, but it’s better to lose an uncooperative one than a cooperative one.”

Chin-Hong says, “People’s exhaustion is getting greater and greater; look at Asian hate — that hasn’t abated. It’s an underlying symptom of people’s frustrations.”

Benjamin says, “This has been a pressure test to the resilience of our society. We have people who are acting out in a variety of ways. I think they’re the tip of the iceberg. These are representations of the enormous stress society is under. Even the most resilient among us are under stress. We’re in a very explosive place.

“Those playground rules still apply: Treat others with respect, put your toys away. All those things we learned in kindergarten, those rules still apply.”

Says Corcoran: “It’s entirely about social trust, and that will grow as more people become vaccinated. Our biggest thing is we need our consumers to get vaccinated. That’s the solution for everybody and for every business.”

Though each of these interviews was conducted individually, if it sounds as if NATO is in lock-step with public-health experts, that’s because it is. Corcoran emphasizes that the theater organization has listened to the experts from the start.

“We survive and thrive based on our customers, and we have to have that trust with them,” says Corcoran.

Chin-Hong emphasized that the dangers remain real, but customers can minimize risk: “You can customize your experience to make it safer. You can go to the movie theater but watch the situation in your community. Go at a time of day when there are fewer people. The movie theater is safer than indoor dining; people are in their seats. The concession stand might be risky, where people are mingling, and when they go to the bathroom — but we’ve come a long way from a year ago.”

Benjamin said, “Two years ago, we didn’t have the tools to normalize life in our society. We now have the tools to do so. We just have to use them responsibly, utilize the best science, understanding it will change over time as we learn more. All pandemics end, either because they go away or we learn to adapt to them. We’re not there yet, but they do.”

The ABCs (and D) of safely going to the movies

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong offered this A-B-C-(also C)-D of attending movies safely, apart from the basic tenets of safety: Be vaccinated and boosted, wear a mask and observe social distancing.

“A is for assessing who you are, what’s in your situation. Are you immuno-compromised, older or living with someone who’s elderly or compromised? You’ll have to be more careful.

“B is for boosters: They keep you away from the hospital. Even with a breakthrough, you’re about 90% protected from the hospital and nearly 100% from dying” unless you have other significant illness.

“C is for children. About 5-year-olds can be vaccinated and about 12-year-olds can be boosted. That will make it a safer environment: You want to make sure there’s a wall of immunity around you.

“C is also for Concessions — the most risky part of the movie theater. Being where the popcorn is, is risky. It’s safer to take it back to your seat. But to really reduce the risk, don’t eat or drink at all in the theater. But it’s better than a restaurant — it’s more controlled than indoor dining.

“D is for diagnostic tests. If you’re worried about exposure, say some of your friends got sick in the same setting, you test Day 3 to [Day] 5 after the event.

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Collector inspects Hogenakkal to prepare DPR for Phase II of drinking water project

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Collector S. Dhivyadarshini inspected Hogenakkal to begin the preparatory works on a Detailed Project Report for the proposed Phase II of the Hogenakkal Integrated Drinking Water Project announced by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin last week.

Earlier, the Chief Minister announced the second phase of the Hogenakkal Fluorosis Mitigation and Drinking Water Distribution Scheme that would envision augmenting the capacity of distribution and increased coverage at ₹4,600 crore.

The district administration was asked to prepare a DPR for Phase II. In pursuant of the announcement, the Collector inspected Hogenakkal to explore the site for setting up head water storage reservoir, water purification plant and distribution tank that were part of Phase II expansion works. Officials were asked to expedite the exploratory study and prepare the DPR.

The project was implemented at ₹1,928.80 crore under multilateral funding through Japanese collaboration to mitigate fluorosis contamination in the drinking water and provide potable water for the town panchayats in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts. The two districts were worst hit by fluorosis contamination in drinking water that called for urgent intervention.

At present, the project is being implemented to provide drinking water to three municipalities, 16 town panchayats and 7, 639 villages of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri.

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LEC’s HVAC system issues discussed in county commission work session – Garden City Telegram

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BY MEGHAN FLYNN Garden City Telegram

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning system issues at the Law Enforcement Center and the next steps to fix them, were discussed at the Finney County Commission’s work session on Jan. 18.

Work on the LEC’s HVAC system was included in the county-wide sales tax question approved by voters in the Nov. 2, 2021, general election.

Rex Harrison, Finney County Facilities Supervisor, said the problem with the HVAC system originates with the between 70-80 heat pump units in the ceiling and the chiller on the roof.

Accessibility and the age of the equipment is the issue, Harrison said.

“The new stuff is supposedly more efficient, but it’s pretty difficult to get up inside the concealed ceiling in the jail to work on the heat pump units,” he said. “They’re all concealed, and you have to basically break it to get up there and work on it.”

Additionally, circuit boards are constantly going out, the equipment is not made for cold weather.

Mike Warren, Finney County Sheriff, said there are also constant water issues.

“I have an evidence room that I’m being told we probably won’t even be able to use some of it just because of the water leakage,” he said. “We haven’t lost any cases because we (haven’t had) any water damage on any evidence. With the Police Department vacating their evidence room we’re taking it over, there’s a place back there they said is just not usable just because of the water that’s leaked there in the past.”

Harrison said there are a lot of heat pump units in the ceiling that his department has had to evacuated and put somewhere else because the heat pumps are right next to where plumbers put the water in and electricians put their conduits in. His department couldn’t access the heat pumps, so they had to move them somewhere they could access them.

The heat pumps add to the water issues, Harrison said. Drainpipes are another contributing factor.

“Sometimes it’s condensation,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of condensation in the county attorney building. You’re going to have condensation no matter where we’re at because of the constant climate change.”

Commissioner Bob Kreutzer, said he had a lot of personal involvement with the LEC when it was being built and believes the equipment is at the end of its lifetime.

“One of the biggest downfalls of the era that you purchased it is that if it gets below about four degrees, it has a real time heating, and in our part of the world we have days like that— we don’t have a lot of them, but we do have days,” he said. “Now, the new technology that came out in the last year, it’s good down to about 11 below, which is significantly different. Even the same brand that you have now will do that.”

Kreutzer said the next step above is using hot and chilled water as a backup, but the problem in the jail is there’s limited space, only about a foot to two feet of clearance from concrete to the fixed, secure ceiling where the equipment has to go in. They’re limited in terms of their options for updates.

“Obviously, you can stay with boilers and chillers and do away with a heat pump and do that, but you also have a tremendous indoor air quality requirement so that all of your people are very comfortable in their environment,” he said. “So, getting fresh air to all of those spaces is very difficult.”

Going out for requests for qualification is a very important step, Kreutzer said. It should be the next one taken, but the county needs to realize that because of the nature of the industry right now any quote that was taken a year or so ago, it’s probably gone up about 20%.

“As you look at this project, as we do, we’re going to need to make some hard decisions, but I wouldn’t go into it with strictly allowing someone to bid this kind of system,” he said. “I would look at some alternatives and certainly look at people who have worked on that kind of retrofit project and engineered it as to what can be done.”

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Suneil Shetty and O2 Cure launch awareness campaign against indoor air pollution and Covid-19

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Kartik Singhal, Founder of O2 Cure & Managing Director, Zeco Aircon Limited, and Suniel Shetty, Bollywood actor and Strategic Partner of O2 Cure

 

With the pandemic disrupting our lives, the nation has again chosen to strictly abide by the social distancing norms and stay indoors. While this is the wisest option of all, it also gives way to an alarming concern resulting from contaminants like bacterias, viruses, germs, gasses, particles, dust, pollen, and other hazardous substances that keep circulating between the four walls of the homes.
For this reason, O2 Cure (air purification solution provider under Zeco Aircon Limited) has launched #Letyourhomesbreathe in collaboration with Bollywood actor Suneil Shetty. The campaign  will drive awareness around improving indoor air quality and safeguarding people against coronavirus.
This campaign will focus on keeping residences and other enclosed areas free of harmful air contaminants and particulate matter. The health implications can be adverse as the poor indoor air quality has been linked to lung diseases like asthma, COPD, lung cancer, heart disease, and even stroke.
#Letyourhomesbreathe includes an informative discussion series on preventive measures against inhaling COVID-19 ‘Omicron’ and poisonous indoor air resulting from various pollutants in the homebound environment. Through research-based discussions on social media platforms, Suneil Shetty will help the Company spread awareness around the pollutants that the nation needs to safeguard itself from. Also, this campaign is a step for educating the public on the health impact of these hidden particles.
Kartik Singhal, Founder of O2 Cure & Managing Director Zeco Aircon Limited (Member of IAQA, ISHRAE, and -ASHRAE) said, “We are all exposed to the hidden particles that keep circulating us in our homes. Due to space constraints, most of the modern housing structures lacking proper ventilation lead to hazardous air standards in these safest premises as well. Also, landfills release poisonous gases which eventually lead to respiratory issues. Additionally, with doors shut and no filtration mechanisms available, the air indoors becomes all the more unfit to breathe. Airborne contaminants are resulting in an alarming situation that needs immediate intervention.”
Said Shetty, “We all need to stay safe and stay indoors! But staying safe indoors is also important. While we all have been struggling to keep ourselves safe from COVID-19, we have also been ignorant to other forms of deadly pollutants that surround us in the form of bacterial, microbial, gaseous compounds, odor and viruses. Taking adequate precautions is the need of the hour. O2 Cure has launched a great initiative to protect the human race from the hidden danger that needs to be curbed timely before it leads to another health crisis.”

Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content

Previous articleFree vaccination drives and CSR activities by Indian companies during the third wave

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2,500 free COVID-19 home tests kits available from Indianapolis Urban Leage – WISH-TV | Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather

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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Indianapolis Urban League is handing out 2,500 free COVID-19 home test kits during its food and meal distribution drive on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The league said it’s prepared to serve 500 families at 777 Indiana Avenue.

Families will also receive a case of Lysol disinfecting wipes.

There will also be 22,840 pounds of bread, meat, dairy and fresh produce during the 84th week of its drive-thru food and meal distribution.

According to the Indianapolis Urban League, it received a generous donation of COVID-19 home test kits to disburse in the community due to the higher transmissibility of the Omicron variant and low vaccination rates.

“Even in the extreme cold the Indianapolis Urban League strives to keep its clients and the community safe, fed, and informed as best illustrated today by our distribution of 2,500 COVID-19 home test kits. We appreciate the generosity of our partners and volunteers who help us serve our community,” said President and CEO Tony Mason.

The free home tests kits will be available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last.

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