Shopping Centres and Poor Air Quality

South Africans are streaming back under COVID LEVEL 1 to their favourite stomping grounds .. no not the beaches, but the various shopping centres located around the country.

Social distancing and face masks will act as a deterrent against COVID-19 and more so since government has moved the onus on these two ‘must do’ actions onto each one of us. The first one is a guideline, the second mandatory which comes with a wallet content emptying threat if you disobey. Vaccinations have promising potential as well …..

But larger numbers of people re-congregating in enclosed public places brings into sharp focus the very real threat of a second/third/fourth wave of a pandemic that has not yet said its goodbyes (and probably never will according to the infectious diseases’ brigade as  it may re-appear in a different guise but with similar fatal traits).

Enclosed public places share one common denominator – all the people in the building inhale the same air all the time while they are around – and the same air is recirculated 24/7 via HVAC (air conditioning) ducting/coils which chill down or heat up the temporary inhabitants below and in the building.

Not much different to a public swimming pool then – same people and same water being recirculated over and over again – never thought of that comparison did you? But with this difference, public pools have to have chemicals/technology in place to treat and continuously keep the water safe (by law and/or local regulation).

So why not have a similar public safety measure in place for mechanical ventilation systems, in enclosed public buildings that compels management to have their internal air ventilation systems fitted with air disinfection technologies, to make their public space’s air 99,9% safe for people to live/work/play/study/frequent?

Looking for a solution that WILL work? …. go to https://polarafrica.co.za/product-application-dashboard/#.YEkPQbQza8o