Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation,!!!

To all:

   The comments I offer are based on over 3 decades of experience managing to large research laboratories (Lovelace Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute  (ITRI) and Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology (CIIT)). Both laboratories were full time research operations with full-time research staffs of over 40 Doctoral degree , 80 support personnel and numerous post-graduate students and post -doctoral personnel. Both laboratory operations had full time Health ,Safety and Environment personnel with numerous certifications.

At the ITRI we worked with large quantities of various highly hazardous radionuclides including Plutonium -238 and 239.  The Lovelace Laboratory now has Biological Safety Laboratories 3 facilities for working with highly infectious agents. At CIIT we worked with a wide array of highly hazardous chemicals. 

These laboratories were operated in a safe manner for decades. The key elements remain:

Well-trained and experienced staff that understood safety was  paramount to our safe operations. Most of our staff had to be retrained on the job despite having graduated from first rate universities.

In both labs, the Director of HSE reported directly to me , as the CEO. The Director of HSE had the authority to shut down any laboratory that was not being operated in a safe manner irrespective of the rank of the individual responsible for the laboratory..

Written Standard Operating Procedures were required for all operations.

We had an In-House HSE Committee of staff members that would meet regularly and also inspect all laboratories to ensure compliance with all HSA procedures.

The current focus on "social distancing" and especially the use of a 6 foot metric is a crude indicator for infectious agents dating to the 1930s.  The fact that it is garnering so much attention in research laboratories today is a testimonial to what my friend and mentor, the late Philip Abelson called the "Bigotry of Science" in an Editorial he published when he was Editor of Science ( Science , 24 April 1964, Volume 144, pg 371.)

 It is unfortunate that individuals in scientific disciplines doe not work together to better understand and address complex problems. In the fields of aerosol science and inhalation toxicology it s well known that " an aerosol is a relatively stable suspension of droplets and particles in a gaseous media". Some folks in epidemiology and infectious diseases are still struggling to understand the Corona viruses behave just like other airborne materials. The basic concepts used by chemist and other for decades to minimize the hazards of airborne substances are applicable to controlling hazards of infectious agents -- limit what is in the air and limit exposure.

Air concentrations of any potentially hazardous airborne agent including infectious agents is the key to control. When was the last time you did a ventilation review with measurements of air flow of all your units laboratories, offices and class rooms? I have been dismayed that many institutions have limited capabilities among their staff when it comes to ventilation. A frequent attitude is the facilities were well designed, the ventilation must be OK. In fact, most facilities designed and built in recent decades have had a focus on energy conservation and have been constructed in ways that facilitate the spread of infectious agents.

To help get across the interaction of the concepts of social distancing, spatial density and ventilation have your students do some calculations of air concentrations of infectious units where you vary the several  input parameters.

Share the results with your Department Head, Dean, Provost or President and you may find your self with a new assignment on the President's Advisory Committee on Operations in a POVID-19 Environment..

Let me know privately if your institution has already discussed the ventilation issue.

   Live , play and work safely!!!!

Roger O. McClellan, DVM, MMS, DSc(Honorary)

Diplomate - ABT and ABVT; Fellow- ATS, AAAS, HPS, SRA, IARA and American Thoracic Society

Member, National Academy of Medicine

Editor- Critical Reviews in Toxicology

E-mail:roger.o.mcclellan**At_Symbol_Here**att.net