30.01.2019
Why Your Influenza Outbreak Management Plan Should Focus on Air Quality
Whether in the field of healthcare, education or otherwise, airborne infection control is an important element of keeping building occupants happy, healthy, and safe. Many of us aren’t aware of the connection between air quality, relative humidity, and influenza prevention efficiency. Today, find out why your influence outbreak management plan should be prioritizing air quality control, using techniques such as evaporative cooling, airflow control, and more.
Airflow and Circulation
A proactive approach is to maintain control over how air flows in and out of every room in your building. If orchestrated correctly, such as in hospitals with sealed wings experiencing an outbreak, air laced with infectious bacteria can be diverted into specific areas rather than into every room, allowing a humidifier with evaporative cooling capabilities to efficiently filter it out and introduce clean, hygienic air. Over time, relative humidity control combined with airflow and circulation efficiency will reduce the effectiveness of bacterial strains, limiting the scale of the outbreak.
Filtration Efficiency
Evaporative humidifiers are capable of filtering unhealthy air out and fresh, clean air in. However, clean water is a critical part of humidification that benefits occupant health and wellness. Systems such as those by Condair incorporate an innovative filter design that can more efficiently treat moisturized air before it is dispersed into a room. Therefore, focusing on air quality in this manner can go a long way in making your influenza outbreak management plan more effective.
Moisture Content and Airborne Infection Control
One final factor to consider when it comes to focusing on air quality is the relative humidity of an environment. This is because the amount of air moisture content dictates the efficiency of airborne infection control. Therefore, it is highly recommended to maintain levels between 40 and 60 percent RH in order to benefit occupant safety and reduce infection rates. Otherwise, if these levels are too low, aerosols containing influenza bacteria can more easily travel through the air.
In any environment, keeping individuals healthy and safe is integral to maintaining a way of life and productivity, not to mention workplace efficiency. Your influenza outbreak management plan can factor in as many sanitizer stations and quarantine protocols as possible, but if you don’t focus on air quality, a high risk of infection could still remain. Reach out to us at Condair for evaporative humidifiers and other cost-effective solutions that can maximize the efficiency of your airborne infection control.
Similar Links:
https://www.condair.com/humidifiernews/blog-overview/6-ways-to-use-evaporative-cooling
https://www.condair.com/humidifiernews/blog-overview/what-is-an-evaporative-cooler
