Use of portable air purifiers to reduce aerosols in hospital settings and cut down the clinical backlog.
Jacob Andrew SalmonsmithAndrea DucciRamanarayanan BalachandranLiwei GuoRyo ToriiCatherine HoulihanRuth EpsteinJohn RubinManish K TiwariLaurence B LovatPublished in: Epidemiology and infection (2023)
SARS-CoV-2 has severely affected capacity in the National Health Service (NHS), and waiting lists are markedly increasing due to downtime of up to 50 min between patient consultations/procedures, to reduce the risk of infection. Ventilation accelerates this air cleaning, but retroactively installing built-in mechanical ventilation is often cost-prohibitive. We investigated the effect of using portable air cleaners (PAC), a low-energy and low-cost alternative, to reduce the concentration of aerosols in typical patient consultation/procedure environments. The experimental setup consisted of an aerosol generator, which mimicked the subject affected by SARS-CoV-19, and an aerosol detector, representing a subject who could potentially contract SARS-CoV-19. Experiments of aerosol dispersion and clearing were undertaken in situ in a variety of rooms with two different types of PAC in various combinations and positions. Correct use of PAC can reduce the clearance half-life of aerosols by 82% compared to the same indoor-environment without any ventilation, and at a broadly equivalent rate to built-in mechanical ventilation. In addition, the highest level of aerosol concentration measured when using PAC remains at least 46% lower than that when no mitigation is used, even if the PAC's operation is impeded due to placement under a table. The use of PAC leads to significant reductions in the level of aerosol concentration, associated with transmission of droplet-based airborne diseases. This could enable NHS departments to reduce the downtime between consultations/procedures.
Keyphrases
- mechanical ventilation
- sars cov
- water soluble
- low cost
- acute respiratory distress syndrome
- intensive care unit
- respiratory failure
- respiratory syndrome coronavirus
- case report
- patient safety
- particulate matter
- extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
- climate change
- healthcare
- magnetic resonance imaging
- primary care
- general practice
- palliative care
- minimally invasive
- quality improvement
- magnetic resonance
- air pollution
- coronavirus disease
- risk assessment
- health risk
- computed tomography
- heavy metals
- atomic force microscopy
- finite element