Ventilation and Respiratory Viruses

Ventilation and Respiratory Virus Prevention

Each year, respiratory viruses are responsible for millions of illnesses and thousands of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. In addition to the virus that causes COVID-19, there are many other types of airborne respiratory viruses, including influenza (flu) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that can spread more easily indoors than outdoors since their concentration can build up indoors and people are often closer to each other.

One important approach to reduce the spread of common respiratory viruses, is to increase ventilation, which is the amount of air moving in and out of a building. Ventilation removes indoor air that may be concentrated with airborne viruses and replaces it with fresh outdoor air.

Ensuring proper ventilation is an important component of promoting good indoor air quality in general. Ventilation provides improved indoor air quality and health benefits by reducing the levels of other indoor pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and biological pollutants (including respiratory viruses).

 

Key Times for Prevention

Improving ventilation and implementing other preventive actions are especially helpful when:

1.Respiratory viruses are causing a lot of illness in your community.

2.You or the people around you were recently exposed to a respiratory virus, are sick, or are recovering.

3.You or the people around you have risk factors for severe illness.

 

Ventilation in Homes

There are many ways to bring outdoor air into your home to keep virus particles from accumulating, including:

1.Opening windows and doors when it’s safe to do so;

2.Operating exhaust, window or attic fans; and

3.Running a window air conditioner with the vent control open. 

4.Each of these ventilation approaches will help clear out virus particles in your home. Using multiple approaches simultaneously may be even more effective.

You may also consider using bathroom and kitchen fans and rangehoods that exhaust air outdoors to help move air and indoor contaminants to the outdoors. Running fans will also encourage more outdoor air to come indoors, which can further dilute virus particles in the air.

Run fans to circulate the air indoors and to reduce the direct flow of exhaled air from one individual to another.

To further limit virus particles from accumulating in indoor air, consider using a portable air cleaner and/or upgrading the filter in your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Select a furnace filter that is rated MERV 13 or as high as your system will accommodate. Operate HVAC systems with furnace filters continually by placing the fan setting in the "On" position. When these strategies are used in conjunction with increased ventilation, you can clear out virus particles in your home more effectively. These approaches for filtering the air may also be helpful in situations when only a limited amount of ventilation with outdoor air is possible, such as when opening doors and windows would create a safety risk and during gatherings or when you have visitors.

 

Reference：

https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/ventilation-and-respiratory-viruses#:~:text=One%20important%20approach%20to%20reduce,it%20with%20fresh%20outdoor%20air.