- All right.
Thank you everyone for joining us today
on Anteater Insider live.
I'm Aaron Orlowski your
host from UCI office
of Strategic Communications
and Public Affairs.
You're listening to the live show
produced by our office
for staff and faculty.
That's meant to help
you get more information
about the re-engagement
of campus operations,
during this COVID-19 era.
There's so much great information
that everyone needs to hear
and that we're so interested
in sharing with you.
And that's why we're producing
this show every two weeks.
So today we are focusing
on indoor air quality.
In much as we might all like
to spend all our time outside
in the beautiful Southern
California weather.
We do have to get inside at some point
to get some work done.
And UCI's facilities
management team has taken
a number of steps to
help make sure that indoor air is safe
and healthy for us to breathe.
So today we're gonna hear
from a couple of folks.
First, we're gonna hear
from Matt Gudorf who is
the Assistant Director,
Facilities Management here at UCI.
And he'll talk about some of the actions
that their team has taken on indoor air.
And then we'll hear from
Professor Manabu Shiraiwa,
who is an Associate Professor
of Chemistry here at UCI.
And he's an expert on indoor air quality.
So first we'll hear from Matt
and he'll give us some information
and then we'll do a Q&A with him.
So be sure to submit your questions
through the Q&A feature at that time.
And I'll be able to take some questions.
And then after that we will move on
to Professor Shiraiwa who
will give a presentation
and then also do some Q&A.
And the last thing I wanna share
before we get started today
is that we are recording today's show.
So if you have to hop off or,
if you know some of your colleagues
who were unable to make it,
that'll be available on
YouTube after the fact.
So, alright, Matt,
we can, start with you and
thank you for joining us today
on Anteater Insider Live and take it away.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
Obviously there's a good deal
about indoor air quality, of concern.
And we wanna be able to bring
what facilities management is working on,
to our community on campus
and explain the things that we're seeing,
that we're taking action on
and that we're evaluating every day.
So if you could bring up the slides.
So, one of the things we'll point out
is a lot of times you hear about
heating ventilation, air conditioning.
That's also all of the impact
of our indoor air quality.
And it's usually
abbreviated just basically
using the title HAC.
The guidance that we're getting
is coming from a lot of
different organizations.
The campus is monitoring
these organizations
for the information that they're putting
and then taking action based upon that.
First and foremost,
obviously the Center for Disease Control
and the World Health Organization
are putting out the
majority of the information
with the CDC really leaning heavily
on the guidance from ASHRAE.
Which is the American
Society for Refrigeration
and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
UC Irvine is also working,
diligently with three flow technologies,
which is a company we've
worked with in the past
for indoor air quality on campus.
They're experts in the field.
And then you see ops the president working
with Taylor Engineering.
We're taking all of this
information together
to really implement the
strategies going forward.
So just a quick primer on
the heating ventilation
and air conditioning systems on campus
and there different types of buildings.
Some of the strategies that we're taking,
I've kind of drawn some
quick diagrams here for you.
You have green as your supply airflow
and red is your exhaust air flow.
And so let's talk a little bit
about the lab buildings
or labs zones first.
Those labs zones are a
hundred percent outside air,
no re-circulation at any time.
So we bring in that air,
we filter it, cool it,
it pressurize it, send it
out into the buildings.
And then that air is fully exhausted,
out the stacks of the building
with no recrement of any kind.
In those situations,
we already actually had very
high quality filtration media
and we're gonna talk about
filtration on a slide coming up.
And we have a high volume of
dilution ventilation as well.
So lab air,
in under Covid situations is
about as good as we can get.
And we would expect that
because of the nature
of a lab zone, right?
Where there could be chemicals
or something released into the space,
we always have had, a very,
very safe air in those spaces.
Next, we'll look at office and classrooms.
A little bit different
type of environment.
This is where we have a return air system.
So we have air that comes
in, just like a lab zone.
It's cooled, it's filtered,
it's supplied to the building.
It makes it's pass through the building,
into a classroom and an office.
And then it's exhausted.
And as it's exhausted,
some of that air is normally returned
to be filtered, cooled and pressurized
or heated and pressurized again.
And some of it is exhausted
or relieved to the outside.
So in these situations,
under the guidance,
we have modulated the amount
of outside air to the maximum.
We wanna use this as much
outside air as possible.
This is a difference from
when we normally would operate
where we would have a lot
of return air on hot days
and a lot of outside air
on cold, cooler days.
Basically taking an energy
conservation approach,
saves a lot of energy and it really helps,
reduce the cost of operating the campus.
But now under the Covid conditions,
we've gone to this maximum outside air.
We've also increased
the dilution ventilation
and increased the run
hours of these systems
to help flush the building.
So that's the office and classroom.
We have taken action there
and again on the filtration,
we'll talk about that on another slide.
For the trailers and temporary buildings
that we have on campus.
There are just a few of these,
but what we wanted to point them out.
We have supply that comes in
and then most of the air
is just constant return.
You hear a lot of recirculation
there's limited outside ventilation.
We have a lot of ex filtration
through windows and doors.
Is how a lot of the air that
does come in is relieved.
And they have the lowest
MERV rating on campus.
But again, I'll talk
about that MERV rating
and the filter technology in a moment.
Because we really want to say,
that even though it has the
lowest is not the worst.
Next one.
So, most of the transmission
that we're aware of to date
is through droplet based transmission.
These are the droplets that
are effected by gravity.
They fall out of the air
within that six foot radius,
which is why we have
a physical distancing.
This is also in droplet based transmission
where we're wearing our masks
and that really associates the fact
that we can help reduce the number
of droplets that are coming out.
we can also help prevent
droplets from coming in.
And of course all of the other things
that would take place
under the CDC guidance
that we're well aware of.
The other thing that we've done on campus
is obviously we have a
greatly reduced occupancy.
The reduced occupancy
also means that we have
increased dilution ventilation
because you have less people to share
that dilution ventilation with.
We've maximized the,
up to where the air balance will.
And we've also have to
look at air velocity.
We don't wanna carry droplets any further,
than they would normally travel.
And so, we don't want areas
with really high air velocity
that we carry those droplets beyond,
where we've had the physical
distancing in place.
And then of course,
we maximizing that outsider delivery
without compromising temperature humidity.
There are times where we still
have to run some return air.
And that really is because
we don't want condensation.
We don't want mold growth
within the building.
So we have to keep humidity under control
by bringing that moisture
out at the air handler level,
before we supply it to the space.
Next slide.
And we've taken all of those steps.
Heating ventilation, air conditioning
on an aerosol based transmission.
Aerosol based transmission.
We're not sure that it's happening.
There's evidence to suggest
that it could be possible.
Now we're talking about,
virus particles that can
travel great distances.
They can travel greater distances
because of how fine those particles are.
We're talking less than five microns.
And so, now we have another challenge.
And so the campus is also taking steps,
on an aerosol based transmission,
even though the evidence
says it's unlikely,
but it is possible.
And so, we've increased the
filtration media on campus.
We're flushing those buildings
with clean air before and after use.
So with increased the run hours
and in some cases with moderate
modified airflow patterns.
And of course we have
room pressurization in our laboratories.
We've looked at some of the other things
that are on the market.
The personalized ventilation systems
and the UV lighting systems.
Really concerned there,
is limited effectiveness,
especially even at our aerosol conditions.
And of course the great expense
when you're trying to cover millions
of square feet of space.
So, if you bring up that,
what we've completed,
I think that you'll see
that we've taken a lot of steps
on aerosol based transmission.
So next slide dish.
Yeah.
And we've done everything
we can do on the aerosol,
but again aerosol is not,
what the main concern is among
epidemiologist at this point
and the guidance they're suggesting
it's all based around the
droplet based transmission.
Next slide.
So, filtration.
Let's talk about
filtration, formally again.
We're not talking about
the in zone transmission.
We're talking about now,
where you would have a
release within a space
and it goes through the return doctor
up into the return of
the of the air system.
And then it would be filtered
and then of course, cooled or heated
and then supplied back to
the zone and then move it.
So basically moving that
through the building.
And so ASHRAE came out with some guidance,
based on the filtration
media that would help assist
in reducing the spread
if it isn't an aerosol based transmission.
And so where are we at?
We have our trailers there
at the industry standard.
So if you go to a grocery store,
typical office building,
those places,
they're at the industry standard,
above eight filter rating, on those units.
And unfortunately the equipment
is designed in size in such a way.
That's where we're limited.
Now, when we have the
smaller Hillers on campus.
These are buildings like,
humanities office building, multipurpose,
academic administration building.
So smaller buildings on campus.
They have air handlers
that have been upgraded
from a MERV 10 filter to a MERV 13 filter.
This is the ASHRAE
recommended filter minimum,
to be installed, under
the COVID-19 scenario.
And then, you have all of the
large buildings on campus.
So this is your older
tall, engineering hall,
(mumbles)
These kinds of buildings.
Any building with the
buildup air handlers.
On campus, these were
already at a MERV 15 rating.
They remained at a murder, 15 rating.
Many of them had just gone
undergone a fresh filter change.
And you can see
those are actually two steps
above the ASHRAE recommended.
Now MERV 17 through 20.
Those are your HEPA filters.
You can hear about this on the media.
People have talked about, HEPA filtration.
Unfortunately, the fan power required
to move air through a HEPA filter
is greater than what is
installed in most buildings.
And so it's not possible to even go out
and retrofit to a HEPA filter.
Even if you did, again,
we're now talking about something
with a very, very low probability,
as being a method of spreading COVID-19.
Next slide.
So in review,
we wanna talk about the
work that we've taken today.
And one of the key things
that we should talk
about is the maintenance
and operation has never ceased on campus.
So even in March when we
started this curtailment,
our trade staff on campus continued
to maintain and operate these buildings.
We did not lock all the buildings,
the buildings continued their operations.
Which really goes a
long way to making sure
that we don't have stagnation,
that these buildings
are operating correctly,
that everything came back.
When students come back on
faculty and staff come back
and they're running as designed.
We have an increased percentage
of outside air, again,
trying to bring in as much
outside air as possible
with as little return air as possible,
under weather conditions
and equipment allowances
and making use of that air to again,
not have the possibility of
running a return air system,
where we would spread COVID-19,
even though that is a
very, very low probability.
Increasing the run hours,
really providing two extra
hours to flush out anything
that might be in the building
on either side of the day.
So before or after a scheduled occupancy.
And then of course we've
increased that filtration.
Finally, we'd like to point out,
we continually monitor guidance.
As we know things continue to change
and we're out there making changes
as those recommendations are released.
So, facilities management will continue
to monitor what's going on,
throughout all of our different partners
and make any implement
changes as quickly as possible
based on those on those
findings and needs.
So with that,
I can get into a question and answers
on the indoor air quality
heating ventilation,
air conditioning systems on campus.
- Great.
Thank you so much for
that presentation, Matt.
I think we have a couple of questions
that already came in here on the Q&A.
So we have a question
from a participant here,
asking about some more details
related to the droplet based transmission.
Let's see.
I think the question here is,
"so what do you mean by the
maximum amount of outside air?
What is the actual percentage of air
that is able to come in from the outside
in some of those circumstances?"
- Yeah so, in general,
we would have a return air percentage
and a outside air percentage.
And when I say outside air,
I mean, basically fresh air
brought in from a rooftop
or wherever the outdoor air
intake of the building is.
We're gonna bring that air in.
We're gonna filter it through
that filter technology,
whether it's MERV 13 or 15 filter
and then supply that to the space.
Some of that air that's been supplied
would then normally be
returned to the building.
In these cases,
we're gonna exhaust as much percentage
of that as possible
and bring in as much
outside air as possible.
So basically, it's highly
energy inefficient,
but at the same time it
increases our level of,
I guess I would say,
increase, it mitigates the risk, right.
It mitigates the risk
of spreading COVID-19
through any kind of return air duct work.
- Okay.
And another question here,
"is there any plan at this point
to have classrooms or labs upgraded
to MERV 13 by the start of classes?"
- Yes.
So, all of the classrooms,
those buildings will all
be upgraded to MERV 13
by the start of classes.
In fact most buildings are
already upgraded to MERV 13.
We are on this right away.
We did have a delay in one delivery,
but we are,
we will have that by
the time classes start.
- Great, thank you.
And then, one more kind of
technical question here.
And so," by adding outside air,
do you end up compromising the ability
to de dehumidify the air,
and just, how does that balance work out?"
- So how does,
how do we balance the humidification with,
the amount of outside air?
- Yes, thank you.
- So basically the way it works is,
what we start to see is
the increase in humidity,
at humidistat sensors through in the,
within the building.
And so if we end up in a situation
and we just had this
a couple of weeks ago,
when it was very, very humid outside,
and we can't basically get
to a humidity level, that's acceptable,
we do have to add additional return air,
basically lowering the amount
of outside air because we dry
that air every time it goes
through the chilled water coil.
So every time we push air,
across the air conditioning coil,
just like you would have at
your house or anywhere else,
we condensate that.
Just like water condensates
on a cold glass, right.
Comes out of the air.
Well, the rest of the air
goes into the building.
So the number of times we pass that air,
we end up with lower and
lower humidity levels.
So we're trying to make that balanced.
And what we've found is in most cases,
we can actually run a
very, very high percentage
of outside air.
Especially for the majority of the day.
Only under very, unique
weather conditions,
do we have to dial that back.
Like we had a couple of weeks ago.
- Great.
Well and we still have a
number of questions here,
but we do need to move on.
So we will save these questions,
for some followup later, if possible.
But for now,
we'll move on to, Professor Shiraiwa
who will talk about some
of the science behind
indoor air quality.
So, thank you for joining us
today on Anteater Insider Live
and I will pull up your slides here.
- Okay.
Thank you.
So I'm gonna talk about
our research on indoor air quality
and I try to give a
couple of practical advice
for that and the pandemic.
So I wanna first start with
why care about indoor air
quality to start with.
So this is a code that the numbers
that shows why the indoor is so important.
So I want you to think about
what this numbers means.
So the first hint is a 79,
is the average life expectancy
in the United States.
So people live on average 79 years.
And actually the 70 is actually
the number of years you
would spend indoors.
Okay, so out of 79 years,
people spend usually 90%
of their time in indoor environments
and more so probably
under pandemic, right?
And we often care about
outdoor air pollution
and UCI has legacy of that.
Sherwood Rowland won Nobel prize
for his work on ozone layer.
So we care about outdoor air,
but you actually spend only
four years in outdoors.
So in terms of health
setbacks of air quality,
then you would actually need
to look more into indoor air.
So that's why we are caring
more about indoor air quality
and out of 79 years, you
wear cloths for 77 years.
You are naked for two years.
And that's something that
we are interested in.
And we, are doing some work on that,
which I want to introduce to you.
And the project we have
on this campus is called
the modern consortium for
chemistry of indoor environments,
which is funded by Sloan foundation.
And this is a team of investigators
from eight different institutions.
From US, Canada and UK.
And I'm humbled to lead
this consortium as PI
And we are the team,
monitoring this indoor air chemistry,
looking into gas, phase chemistry,
gas phase reactions, particle reactions,
how the indoor air surfaces
affect indoor air quality.
And we have a number of
different modeling tools,
including molecular dynamics simulations
done by Doctor Tobias
in chemistry department,
up to computational fluid dynamics
to look into how air
distributes in indoor air.
And the first thing I want to mention
is about the reaction of ozone,
which is one of the most
prominent indoor air pollutants
with reaction with yourself.
So actually you might have
never thought in this way,
but actually you are very reactive
because your skin contains
a compound called scarring.
And that compounds has six double bonds,
which can react really fast with ozone
and that's actually the one
of the defense mechanisms
that we have to protect
ourselves against ozone,
but if ozone reacts with its compounds,
there are also other
compounds that are generated.
As you can see in this figure,
which is actually respiratory irritant.
So, actually that we modeled this system
and we found that if
you have such clothing
on the pandemic, you might do less laundry
and you might wear the
same clothing every day.
But in that case,
your clothing is very soiled.
And that basically you are
becoming really reactive.
And when you react,
you make pollution
crowds around you, okay.
And then that you can see
this simulation results,
in this figure.
We call this as a Pig-Pen effect.
So Pig-Pen is a guy that,
which always have his
cloths surrounding him.
And then he is not affecting
the snoopy in this cartoon.
So if you don't do laundries,
wear same clothing every day,
you're exposing ozone.
You are generating this
position crowds around you.
And this is particularly
relevant for polluted regions,
such as Los Angeles or
also in the aircraft cabin
because in aircraft cabin,
ozone concentration is really high.
So you're most likely to
generate this pollution crowd.
So the practical advice would be
avoid wearing same clothing
every day and do laundry.
Encourage to do that.
And otherwise, because
you pollute yourself,
but not only pollute
yourself but also your peers.
Like family members or your
colleagues across to you.
Another thing on the pandemic,
people do more is cleaning, right?
Because to kill Corona Virus
more and more bleach cleaning is applied.
And, but if you do bleach cleaning,
a bleach cleaning is based
on this chloride based cleaning.
So this bleach contains OCl-,
which acts actually reacts ammonia.
There are lots of ammonia
in indoor environments
and the source is yourself.
Because when you fart, when your burp,
when you're,
just a metabolism,
you constantly emit ammonia actually.
And that's sometimes that's
why you smell, right?
And then that actually
ammonia react with bleach
and generates, for example,
chloramine which is toxic.
Okay, so the practical
advice would be open window
when you are doing bleach cleaning.
Because if you open up the
window on the high ventilation.
Then even these compounds is generated,
which is potentially toxic.
That could be just
transported away to outdoors.
Okay.
Then last, I want to talk
about air borne transmissions.
And I actually disagree
with the first talk
that I believe that the most
important transmission pathway
of COVID-19 is airborne.
And as I am also a scientists,
we knew that people, when people talk,
so I'm talking now,
I'm generating lots of
particles in my room here
and then which allowed
the particle diameter
is around five micron, okay?
And the virus itself
is hundred nanometers.
So is there are plenty
of room for this virus
to be within this droplet
or air aerosol okay?
So when I say droplet,
I mean, particles larger
than maybe a hundred micron
that traditionally people
assume that the main pathways,
but what now,
we're saying there is mounting evidence
that airborne transmission,
aerosol transmission,
namely that the particles
are on five micro meter,
which can travel far more than six feet,
should be the responsible for
this wide spread spreading
the bent of COVID-19.
So we, I was a part of
this open letter site
signed by 239 scientists.
And is there a few more UCI scientists
who signed this letter to WHO
and finally say acknowledge
the importance of aerosol
transmission of COVID-19.
And I just give you one example
of the super spreading event
that, which happened in
in one Chinese restaurant.
You may know this because
this is also popular in media.
But one guy was affected,
had a Covid case
and his AC unit in this restaurant
and only people who were within
the air flow of this AC unit
got affected by this one person, right?
This event can be only explained
by air borne transmission
because in China or in Asian countries,
we don't have much culture
to hug and shaking hands.
So this could be explained
only by aerosol transmission.
And then there are also many
other super spreading events,
such as a chorus singing
in Washington State,
and also the recent outbreak
in Universities which reopened
such as University of North
Carolina, for example,
that in one or two weeks,
there are so many
students getting affected.
And I don't believe that all students
are just hugging and shaking hands around,
particularly on the situation.
So most likely this airborne
transmission is responsible.
So with this in mind,
so what we could do to
reduce airborne transmission.
So it is very important,
to have a sufficient ventilation.
And I was really happy
to hear a talk by Matt
that UCI is making a great efforts
to minimize the circulation
because minimizing the
circulation is very important
because if you recirculate air,
then the air just stagnate in indoor air
and then you have high chance to get
this airborne transmission
to happen, right?
So it's very important
to avoid crowd space.
So open up the space,
have a good ventilation
and avoid crowded places
and avoid close conduct settling.
So this is to avoid .... which started,
which was started in Japan.
This is important.
And if you can,
like what UCI is doing as first talk
that supplement ventilation
with air filtration
on applying UV lights would be great
because UV lights can kill a virus
and also air filtration.
You can you move this particles.
So minimizing recirculation
and the good ventilation
would be highly important
to minimize and address
this airborne transmission.
That's all for me.
- Great.
Thank you So much for that
presentation Professor Shiraiwa.
Let's get into some questions here.
I'll start with one question,
about the restaurant incident
that you brought up in China.
In that type of situation where,
the folks who are in the path of
that air conditioning unit were the ones
who got affected.
What kind of recommendation would you make
in a situation like that,
to produce...
- The most restriction, avoid
going to a restaurant now.
Because for,
the most realistic thing that,
so if you are in indoor
with multiple people
to avoid that list,
everybody's should wear a mask
and then have good ventilation
without recirculation.
That's the way.
But in a restaurant or a bars.
Bar is the worst example.
Because, okay,
you cannot keep wearing
mask when you drink or eat.
So obviously you have to, Right?
And then you talk and you
generate this particles.
So I would say that better to avoid
dining in the restaurant
and all bars, right now.
- Okay, great.
Well, if folks have some other questions,
please feel free to submit
those through the Q&A here.
But maybe for a second,
we could see if,
Matt could weigh in on,
on that topic really quickly of the,
the indoor air,
feel free to...
- So obviously I wanted to point out
that we are in no way
dismissive of aerosols,
from a facilities management perspective
as Professor pointed out.
We're taking steps
specifically to mitigate
that the restaurant in
question was making use
of a 100% return air unit.
So basically it was just
continuously recirculating
that aerosol within that space.
Facilities management knows
that aerosols are a problem.
We're saying,
"hey, we don't know
what the risk is there.
We know droplets are,
We don't know what the risk is here
and we're taking actions
to mitigate those risks.
And the number one thing is,
is that if you take that
restaurant situation,
if you would have exhausted all that air,
which is now what we're doing,
in FM, you'd have a much
lower transmission rate.
And I think that we just wanted to make
that clear that we're not being dismissive
of aerosol based transmission.
We're saying
that we're not sure what
the percentage chance is
and we're taking action based on that."
- Yes.
I was very happy to hear that you said
that you try to maximize
outdoor air portion, right?
- Thank you for both of
those pieces of input there.
We have a question that's
not related to UCI directly,
but could be interesting for
Professor Shiraiwa to answer.
Why was WHO so reluctant
to acknowledge the potential significance
of aerosol transmission?
- This is very interesting question,
because it's puzzling.
Because actually the SARS-CoV-1,
which happened in 2003 in Asia,
actually aerosol transmission
was also already found
to be a major pathways.
And why not now for this one that no idea.
There's some sort of,
it's dating back to 1910-1920s,
that there's a one big scientist who said
that the droplets should be the one
that which you're responsible
for this virus transmission.
That's somehow that's
prevailing like still.
But I'm really happy that
now people realizing it
and then WHO finally acknowledges it
and is now really the time
to act to mitigate that.
- Great, thank you for that.
One other question that
I had in mind here was,
you mentioned that UV
light could be a good way
to disinfect some surfaces.
Is that something that can be applied
to a whole room or is that something
that's more of a spa treatment?
That could be applied
to to a specific area?
- Yes it could be applied to,
within rooms.
I know that some air airline
companies start trying
to apply in UVs after passengers got off.
Right.
But, for building perspective,
maybe it's the most,
the most efficient,
maybe it's just applying
UV lights to the filters
that just kills the viruses,
but I'm not a building scientist.
So I cannot really give out
specific advice on practically.
- Okay.
Well and we do need to wrap up here,
but I wanted to ask one more question,
from something that really struck me
in one of your first couple of slides,
which is that we spend, on average,
I think it was 77 years inside.
Is that right?
- 70 inside.
- So, it sounds like the
real lesson here might be
that we should all just
spend a bit more time,
outside getting some sun.
- Yes.
- And would you agree?
- Yes, I, yes.
It's sunny here so we can go outside.
Yes.
- Alright.
I'll say it's definitely safer.
- That's good to know.
Well, thank you so much
to both of our guests for
joining in on this episode
of Anteater Insider Live.
We really appreciated
getting your perspective
and learning more about,
what facilities is doing
for the indoor air quality
and as well as some of
the science behind it.
And thank you of course
to everyone who joined in
to listen to the webcast here
and our next episode will be in two weeks.
So please look for the
official announcement on that,
in your inboxes, coming up soon,
but until then, stay safe.
