ASHRAE Publishes First-Ever Pathogen Mitigation Standard
Tags: GPS AIR, Pathogen Mitigation
ASHRAE recently published 241-2023 Standard – Control of Infectious Aerosols for maintaining healthy indoor air quality (IAQ). This Standard establishes minimum requirements to reduce the risk of airborne disease transmission, such as SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, the flu virus and other pathogens in buildings like single and multi-family homes, offices, schools and healthcare facilities. The implementation of this standard brings numerous benefits to occupants and promotes healthier environments.
Specifically, Section 7.4, “Air Cleaning Systems that Inactivate Infectious Aerosols” they state, that “all air cleaning technologies that provide microorganism inactivation or enhanced removal from the airstream, acting alone or in combination with mechanical fibrous filters…” The standard then goes on to list the technologies that perform these functions including “ultraviolet, electrostatic, photocatalytic, and ionizing air cleaning systems”
Furthermore, in the most recent July issue of ASHRAE Journal, Italian researchers looked at various technologies for reducing airborne pathogens in an office space, including ionization. The results of their study recommend ionization (amongst other technologies) and additionally states that ionization is a lower energy solution than other technologies that they reviewed. GPS Air manufacturers a line of indoor air quality soft ionization products for improving Indoor Air Quality.