The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recently introduced a new standard to help protect building occupants and workers from being exposed to viruses (such as COVID-19 and influenza) and other infectious diseases.

Since the recording of initial cases of COVID-19 in China in 2019, approximately 7 million people around the world have died of the illness, according to the World Health Organization. Subsequently, the construction industry (among others) suffered issues of supply chain delays, rising materials costs, labor shortages and work challenges imposed by vaccination requirements and social distancing.

OSHA implemented requirements regarding the spread of COVID on job sites to instruct construction crews about how to work safely, using personal protective equipment and appropriate personal spacing. However, ASHRAE’s new standard goes beyond interim emergency measures in an effort to prevent and lessen future outbreaks from infectious diseases.

ASHRAE Standard 241, Control of Infectious Aerosols, applies to building owners, as well as to contractors and subcontractors working in and on the buildings. Intended to prevent and mitigate the spread of infectious diseases in new, existing and retrofitted buildings, it implements requirements regarding air system design, installation, operation and maintenance.

            Some of its components include: 

• Infection risk management mode: During an “infection risk management mode” of periods identified as having elevated risk of disease transmission, some parts of the code will be activated. ASHRAE claims that authorities having jurisdiction, including the trade organization itself, as well as the owner or operator of the building, can classify these periods.
• Requirements for equivalent clean airflow rate: Standard 241 goes farther than previous standards in setting parameters for outdoor clean airflow rate and filtration requirements to control normal indoor air contaminants.
• Requirements for use of filtration and air cleaning technology: New requirements for use of filtration and air cleaning to achieve equivalent clean airflow requirements are part of the new standard and include testing requirements to establish performance and to “demonstrate that operation does not degrade indoor air quality in other ways.”
• Planning and commissioning: Borrowing from work performed by ASHRAE’s Epidemic Task Force, a “building readiness plan” has been included in the new standard. It contains assessment and planning requirements, as well as procedures for commissioning systems to determine performance of installed systems.
  

In a release, ASHRAE president Farooq Mehboob called the new standard “an essential tool for creating healthier indoor environments and promoting sustainable practices.” He believes it will result in proactive building owners and operators with regard to safe indoor environments.