At least five great webinars / learning opportunities on airborne COVID & aerosols this week. See Tab 7 (Live Webinars) here for links & previous webinars/recordings: bit.ly/3fzmB16; links for this week in thread.
[Let me know if I’ve missed any]
(1/4)
Webinars this week including (all times Eastern):
Today (9/14: <1 hr from now): Dr. Lidia Morawksa & @j_g_allen
(Aerosols & school re-opening)
Webinars this week including (all times Eastern):
9/17 (3:30 pm): @lisacng@corsiaq Dr. Andrew Persily (IAQ Considerations to Assist Tribes in Re-Opening Tribal Buildings during COVID) register.gotowebinar.com/register/74235…
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Well-maintained HVAC filters or portable air cleaners can “also clean the air of pollen particles, mold spores & pollution from car exhaust and industrial operations. And in areas where wildfires are common, filters reduce the concentration of smoke particles inside buildings.”
[In schools that increase ventilation rate] “For kids and school staff, particularly those with asthma, allergies and sensitivities, this can mean fewer missed days of school, less medication, and fewer asthma attacks and subsequent trips to the hospital.” onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/in…
A family emergency means I’m flying today for the first time since 2019. Fortunately I’ve got my N95 to reduce my inhaled dose as much as possible + my CO2 meter to gauge air.
Short 🧵 to occupy me while on a layover.
The CO2 was nicely & low in the Shreveport, LA airport (1/x)
2/ On this tiny United commuter flight, 45 minute flight time from Shreveport to Houston, no one with N95 masks. Maybe 2 w/ surgical masks.
Boarding & taxi process, the #AirplaneCO2 briefly peaked at 1600 ppm, but mostly in 1100 range. Obviously higher than ideal, but not bad.
3/ Cruising (if you call it that for just a few minutes) was still in the 1000 - 1200 ppm range. At that upper level, roughly 2% of the air is likely rebreathed from others on board. But the ventilation is also filtering resp. particles from background air relatively frequently.
Excellent OpEd by @linseymarr & @jljcolorado on the early and persistent confusion around the word "airborne" wrt the pandemic. It's a short overview on the effects of these miscomms across medical & disciplinary boundaries.
Some salient quotes, links (1/) time.com/6162065/covid-…
2/ “This fundamental misunderstanding of the virus disastrously shaped the response during the first few months of the pandemic & continues to this day. We still see it now in the surface cleaning protocols that many have kept in place even while walking around without masks. …”
3/ “… There is a key explanation for this early error. In hospitals, the word “airborne” is associated w/ a rigid set of protective methods, incl. the use of N95 respirators by workers and negative pressure rooms for patients. These are resource-intensive and legally required.”
Clarifies N95s aren't in short supply & can be worn again!
It's still not perfect, but it feels like we're at least inching in the right direction. Some thoughts via a🧵.
2/ New statement that most respirators (i.e. #N95s) "are disposable and should be discarded WHEN they are dirty, damaged, or difficult to breathe through."
That's *much* better guidance than to toss after a single use!
3/ Also clearly states that:
"Loosely woven cloth products provide the least protection ... and well-fitting NIOSH-approved respirators (including #N95s) offer the highest level of protection."
Improves a procedure to expose surrogate proteins to urban air (especially NO2, O3) to quantify changes in protein nitration ➡️ allergies, etc.
1/🧵
2/ @DaveyRachel1 did a great job of quantifying & improving each step of the #bioanalytical procedure; ozone loss across PM filters, extraction & detection efficiencies, even good old analytical #FiguresOfMerit sensitivity & limit of detection. rdcu.be/cEJN7
3/ Possibly the most broadly useful piece is the data showing ozone loss across several filter types. The HEPA capsule scrubbed >60% of the ozone (bad if you're trying to quantify ozone). Kynar removed only 3%.
Important if using filter to remove PM, while quantifying O3 behind.