Reading Florence Nightingale's book, Notes on Hospitals, published in 1859, is just blowing me away.
She made many calculations, including how much water vapor patients exhaled overnight, and how much ventilation would be needed. And raised hell about it not being done.
She made many calculations, including how much water vapor patients exhaled overnight, and how much ventilation would be needed. And raised hell about it not being done.
Her interventions - improving ventilation, decreasing crowding, admitting natural light, washing surfaces -- cut hospital deaths by 2/3. This was WITHOUT hand washing, which wasn't even mentioned in her book.
Old hospitals built according to her specifications, using cross-breezes from large windows for natural ventilation, have much better ventilation than modern hospitals.
ACH = air changes per hour
journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/a…
ACH = air changes per hour
journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/a…
They estimated the risk of TB transmission in a shared naturally ventilated room in old hospitals (built according to Nightingale's recommendations) to be about 1/3 that in a modern negative pressure hospital room.
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