ATLANTA, Georgia, United States, 2 April 2020: ASHRAE on March 31 announced a Society-wide effort to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and provide guidance on how to ensure that buildings are prepared for future epidemics.

ASHRAE said in a Press release that the task force has been established to help deploy ASHRAE’s technical resources to address the challenges of the current pandemic and future epidemics, as it relates to the effects of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems on disease transmission in healthcare facilities, the workplace, home, public and recreational environments. The task force, ASHRAE said, will also provide recommendations for setting up temporary field hospitals in convention centres, arenas and indoor stadia to deal with surges.

The primary role of the task force, ASHRAE said, is to maintain communication with members, industry partners, building owners, facility operators, government agencies and the general public.

According to the release, specific responsibilities of the task force include:

• Serving as a clearinghouse to review all technical questions and requests for technical guidance submitted to ASHRAE
• Coordinating activities of ASHRAE’s internal resources
• Partnering with and monitoring the activities of external organisations, including the more than 60 members of the ASHRAE Associate Society Alliance (AASA) of organisations related to the HVAC&R industry around the world
• Reviewing, organising, consolidating and publishing clear and concise summaries with citations of the most relevant information available to the built-environment

According to the release, 2013-14 ASHRAE Presidential Member William Bahnfleth, will chair the task force. “We have assembled an outstanding group of experts to serve on the task force,” Bahnfleth said. “They are high-level building professionals with collective experience in design, construction, operations and research, who are well qualified to offer guidance on how to protect building occupants and support healthcare facility needs during the uncertainty of an epidemic.”

According to the release, leading experts in medicine and public health will serve as consultants to the task force. Members of the task force are as follows:

Voting Members:

William Bahnfleth, Ph.D., P.E., Chair, ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force

Max Sherman, Ph.D., ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee

Luke Leung, P.E., ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee

Stephanie Taylor, M.D., ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee

Jason DeGraw, Ph.D., ASHRAE Technical Committee 2.10, Resilience and Security

Traci Hanegan, P.E., ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.6, Healthcare Facilities

Steve Martin, Ph.D., P.E., National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Richard Hermans, P.E., ASHRAE Standing Standard Project Committee 170, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities

James Ridenhour, P.E., Consultant

Corresponding/Nonvoting Members

Walid Chakroun, Ph.D., ASHRAE Government Affairs Committee

Wade Conlan, P.E., ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee

Dennis Knight, P.E., ASHRAE Board of Directors

Jay Kohler, P.E., chair, ASHRAE Technical Activities Committee

Wayne Stoppelmoor, CEM, chair, ASHRAE Standards Committee

Bahnfleth said: “ASHRAE is a global, grassroots organization of more than 57,000 members in 130 countries, so we have boots on the ground around the world. Our members and chapters take the initiative to help wherever they are and are already addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. That is also true of our technical and standards committees. When called upon by circumstances to assist in situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, they act within their spheres of competence to do whatever they can to help.”

According to the release, members of ASHRAE’s Healthcare Facilities technical committee (TC 9.6) and ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2017 — Ventilation of Health Care Facilities committee have been working with members of the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) to produce guidance that can be implemented immediately to help hospitals and clinics cope with the increasing volume of COVID-19 cases. Standard 170, ASHRAE said through the release, already has had a beneficial impact by providing guidance for the design of existing infection isolation, intensive care and critical-care rooms in countries that have been most severely affected by this virus. An extensive presentation has been prepared and is being presented to various groups and organisations, including ASHRAE chapters. The presentation includes guidance on how to create additional observation/segregation rooms for a small-scale admission surge as well as the establishment of wards/suites for a large-scale surge.

ASHRAE said questions and requests for technical guidance and interpretations should be submitted to the following email address: COVID-19@ashrae.org. For more information on the ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force, including resources and updates, ASHRAE has recommended visiting the ASHRAE COVID-19 Preparedness Resources webpage at ashrae.org/COVID19.