Delos’ School Air-Quality Study Sheds Light on How to Protect Other Industries

Featured as this month’s Hotel Business Magazine cover story, Delos President and COO, Peter Scialla and Dr. Zachary Pope from WELL Living Lab discussed the takeaways from the WELL Living Lab classroom air purification study and how we can apply this knowledge to any indoor environment from schools and offices to homes and hotels.

The Well Living Lab, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, performed a study to find out if adding portable air purification units would help to keep the air clean from viruses and other harmful airborne particles. Within the WELL Living Lab’s research space, a 1300-sq.-ft. office module was converted into a 900-sq.-ft. classroom, complete with strategically positioned equipment, such as desks, whiteboards and iPads, and the air-purification units.

“The indoor environment is having a profound impact on our health and well-being, and there are things we can do to influence the outcomes. Thankfully, with the help of technology, we’ve made a lot of progress over the last decade, pioneering the WELL Building movement and then specifically diving into categorical expertise” said Peter Scialla.

The study found that, with three air-purification units in the room, there was a decrease in the number of particles in the air of more than five times. There was also a 33% decrease in the accumulation of particles found on surfaces throughout the room.

Other industries like commercial and hospitality can take away similar conclusions to improve indoor public spaces.

“More recently, the real area of public concern from the pandemic started with surface hygiene, but moved very quickly into a recognition that this is an airborne concern and that pathogen transmission is something that happens through particles in the air,” Scialla said. “Therefore, we increased our resources, studies and focus on air as a category, with a strong baseline of support going into the pandemic and now, of course, acceleration through the pandemic because of the world’s focus on indoor air quality. And we’ve continued to translate that into calls to action on things that can be done to improve the indoor environment, getting very specific on actual mechanisms of action and approaches that we feel are right for adoption and that can drive meaningful change.”

As a supporter and affiliate of Delos Canada, we are pleased to see this important study prepared and published by the WELL Living Lab in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. We have been using Delos’ recommended standalone air purifiers throughout our office in meeting rooms, open areas and shared spaces to improve the air quality as we welcomed our employees and visitors back to work. In addition to the advanced air purification units from Delos, Greybrook also achieved the Well Health-Safety Rating early this year and we’re encouraged by the increasing adoption of this program by leading organizations and facilities such as Hines, Tribute Communities Centre, Suncor Energy, Oxford Properties Group, First Capital REIT and more.

Click here for more information on how to make your indoor environment healthier.