People Are 10 Times More Likely To Inhale Covid-19 Aerosols From Public Washroom Than Open Spaces

IIT-Bombay Research team's study shows the persistence of Covid-19 virus-laden aerosols in public washrooms for a duration that is 10 times longer than other open spaces,

Covid-19 virus rides inside tiny microscopic droplets or aerosols ejected from our mouths when we speak, shout, sing, cough, or sneeze. It then floats within the air, where it can be inhaled by and transmitted to other people. But in indoor spaces, it tends to linger more in dead zones like shared washrooms, corners of a room or around furniture increasing the potential for transmission of infection. The researchers discovered that chances of infection are significantly higher in a dead zone.

"Surprisingly, they can be near a door or window, or right next to where an air conditioner is blowing in the air. You might expect these to be safe zones, but they are not," said Krishnendu Sinha, Professor of aerospace engineering at the IIT-Bombay, in a statement. In washrooms present within offices, restaurants, schools, airplanes, trains, and other public spaces , the use of water was found as a major source of aerosol, and computer simulations of airflow within a public washroom showed infectious aerosols in dead zones can linger up to 10 times longer than the rest of the room, the researchers said.

"Computer simulations shows that air flows in circuitous routes, like a vortex," added Vivek Kumar, a co-author. "Ideally, air should be continuously removed from every part of the room and replaced by fresh air. This isn't easy to do when air is trapped in a dead zone," he explained. Current ventilation design is often based on air changes per hour. While these design calculations assume fresh air reaches every corner of the room uniformly, computer simulations and experiments within a real washroom show this does not occur, Sinha said. He further articulated,"Air changes per hour is not the same for all parts of the room. It can be 10 times lower for dead zones. To design ventilation systems to be more effective against the virus, we need to place ducts and fans based on the air circulation within the room. Blindly increasing the volume of air through existing ducts will not solve the problem".

With PTI Inputs