Joseph Allen Profile picture
Assoc Prof @HarvardChanSPH; Direct Harvard #HealthyBuildings Program; Lancet @CommissionCOVID; Coauthor of HEALTHY BUILDINGS @Harvard_Press; WaPo, NYT, HBR

Jul 19, 6 tweets

NEW from our Harvard Healthy Buildings team

We used CFD modeling to evaluate the effectiveness of portable air cleaners to help remove airborne pathogens and mitigate disease transmission in schools

[tl/dr: portable air cleaners work]

THREAD

Portable air cleaners work!

We found that portable air cleaners w a clean air flow rate of 2.6 h−1 reduce mean aerosol intake of all students by up to 66%

Air mixing matters!

**A key benefit of using PACs is to facilitate
air mixing and movement in indoor environments with inadequate ventilation**

Placement matters!

Closest to infector is best (duh), but this is never known. So our results found that, in the absence of knowing who is infected, deploying a PAC at the
center of the room is recommended.

Discharge height matters!

We found that adjusting PAC flow discharge height to the breathing height of occupants (e.g., 0.9–1.2 m for seated people) can enhance their effectiveness in spaces with poor air mixing

There's a lot more that matters!

Have a read:


Big thanks and congrats to Dr. @Gen_Pei_ who led the work, alongside Dr. @parhamazimi_87 and Dr. @RimIAQ pubs.rsc.org/en/content/art…

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