We never did really care about air quality until the pandemic scare knocked on our door – a watershed event of our times. Truly, the pandemic was an eye-opener at various levels. Whilst it heightened awareness on the need for better air quality, it also exposed so-called smart innovations, which were paraded as the next big things. The virus paralysed entire town and cities the world over, winning the war against society, despite humankind being equipped with full-fledged tools to bend the arc of the virus spread towards regression.

Dr Iyad Al-Attar

The pandemic stormed our economies, already facing tremendous challenges in the forms of climate change, water scarcity, poverty, chronic wars, food shortagesnd malnutrition. Unfortunately, we turned a cold shoulder to them, out of widespread disregard for science. We cannot afford to do so anymore, as they remain a real threat to humankind. And nor can we ignore air quality and go back to our old ways.

Before the pandemic, air quality was an unfashionable corner of the HVAC system. Today, air quality is a pillar of our global economies, and enhancing it is a significant step towards realignment. The suffering the pandemic visited upon us invalidates the claims that air quality and filtration obligations have been met.

To underscore the enormity of the pandemic, it is ironic to realise that ignoring air quality and not doing our filtration and ventilation duties could go unnoticed. The feature of any conventional maintenance measure lies in the misconception that washing disposable filters and leaving clogged ones in operation can save maintenance costs, as shown in Figure 1.

The main highlights of such poor maintenance practices are inappropriate filter selection and installation. However, the truth is, either way, we have to pay, whether by enhancing Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) professionally to protect human occupants or through losing loved ones. The pandemic has disrupted our daily activities and forced us to abandon our buildings, as increasing contamination levels are no longer suitable to leave even our pets indoors.

The allowable sin

The pandemic has proven that enhancing IAQ is not philanthropy but is a core survival measure that needs to be taken seriously. Therefore, we must steer our mindsets in the right direction and gear mitigation strategies to get things right. It is impossible to deny the stark correlation between outdoor and indoor air. Therefore, prioritising both with filtration engineers, who can make appropriate decisions to sustain better air quality, is a good initial step. However, without any precise metric to characterise the indoor air in the built-environment, subjecting humans to polluted indoor air quality seems an allowable sin.

Reducing virus transmission is particularly important, as HVAC systems can be the culprit in transporting polluted air in the absence of appropriate air filter installation and sole reliance on reactive rather than preventative maintenance measures. Ultimately, continuous aerosol monitoring can transform air quality attainment from a “nice to have” option to a “zero-tolerance” regime, under which infringing the air quality policies would render the indoor space “unfit to occupy”.

The wreckage of the pandemic

In the wake of the crash of existing maintenance programmes and the collapse of air filter performance comes the right opportunity to raise the bar with regard to air quality. The predicament of the pandemic brought about an exorbitant bill to cover the cost of lockdowns and curfews and positioned governments and policymakers to respond promptly. However, as the facade of normality reappeared, the notion of old maintenance tricks emerged, as if the pandemic was simply a daydream.

It is hard to inspire a change in the mindset of maintenance managers or facility directors who only care about their end-of-the-year bonuses. So, it is no surprise that their inventory is glutted with washable filters that rust and degrade over time and offer a modest efficiency even at sizeable particulate matter (>PM10), as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Scanning electron microscopic images of atmospheric dust in the Arabian Peninsula

The suffering we sustained during the recent pandemic brought new speculation that air quality could reach dazzling heights. At the same time, the delirium of the pandemic subjected humanity to a flood of ineffective filtration products claiming they could capture the coronavirus and reduce its survivability.

COVID-19 made the conditions for an air quality revolution once again ripe. Ironically, the pandemic has proven that enhancing IAQ is not an option but is the much-yearned-for refugeescalating pollution. The promise of change requires charting an uncompromising, compulsively professional plan. Our short- and long-term goals should be drafted with chivalrous enthusiasm and go beyond the self-interest of individuals looking to simply save costs.

Globally, we have fallen short of our air quality objectives despite all our technical know-how and collective experiences, settling for a lifestyle of existence rather than substance. What differences do we need to induce to shift our built-environment from tragedy to triumph? Filtration standards are just a framework to act on, and it is up to the “boots on the ground”, represented by facility managers and maintenance teams, to ensure their professional implementation. However, the pandemic has demonstrated the need to go beyond crafting standards that are largely misunderstood and barely followed to master the architecture of enhancing IAQ. The question remains: How can we reconcile the lives of lost loved ones to COVID-19, just because someone thought improving IAQ was an expensive consideration?

Figure 2: Scanning electron microscopic images of atmospheric dust in the Arabian Peninsula

The denouement of our suffering

We keep asking what an ideal start would be to combat climate change and reduce anthropogenic emissions. Our pollution footprint is massive, given the small space we occupy on our planet. We transformed from a small world on a giant planet to a big world on a small planet. I honestly believe that our generation is the first to feel the effect of climate change and possibly the last to have the opportunity to do something about it. So, why don’t we stop polluting? Isn’t it time to save our environment from such horrendous emissions and then worry about swiftly cleaning up our mess? If it is not now, when? And if we don’t start here, where? And if it is not our generation, then who needs to act? These are uncomfortable questions, but we can disregard them only at our peril.