To identify effective ventilation guidance and practice to mitigate the indoor airborne transmission of infectious diseases in new build non-domestic buildings

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McElroy, Lori Barbara and McGill, Grainne (2023) To identify effective ventilation guidance and practice to mitigate the indoor airborne transmission of infectious diseases in new build non-domestic buildings. Scottish Government, Edinburgh.

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Abstract

Under The Building (Scotland) Act 2003, the Scottish Building Standards system sets minimum standards applicable where new building work is proposed. These mandatory standards, and guidance on how they may be complied with, are published in the Building Standards Technical Handbooks. The building standards system is administered by local authorities who are appointed as the verifiers for their own geographical areas. Standard 3.14, Ventilation, in Section 3, Environment, of the Building Standards Technical Handbook 2020: non-domestic, states: ‘every building must be designed and constructed in such a way that ventilation is provided so that the air inside the building is not a threat to the building or the health of the occupants’. This requirement is applied at the point construction work takes place and does not apply retrospectively to buildings constructed to lesser previous standards. As such, existing buildings require to have their ventilation systems effectively managed by their owners, operators and occupiers to ensure good levels of indoor air quality are maintained. Evidence suggests that in poorly ventilated indoor spaces, airborne aerosols are a possible transmission route of COVID-19. It is recognised that the higher the rate of ventilation, the lower the risk of airborne transmission. However, occupant thermal comfort, energy demands and associated carbon emissions will also need to be considered as part of a building ventilation strategy. This short, focussed project gathered evidence to assess whether application of the current ventilation guidance in the Non-Domestic Technical Handbook provides adequate basis for simple operational practices that can be used to effectively mitigate the indoor airborne transmission of diseases such as COVID-19.

ORCID iDs

McElroy, Lori Barbara ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4472-9891 and McGill, Grainne ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8716-9567;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)