ArticleBuilding and environment2021
Estimating the impact of indoor relative humidity on SARS-CoV-2 airborne transmission risk using a new modification of the Wells-Riley model.
Article in Building and environment, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Modelling indoor airborne transmission combining architectural design and people movement using the VIRIS simulator and web app.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Occupational exposure monitoring of airborne respiratory viruses in outpatient medical clinics.Aerosol science and technology : the journal of the American Association for Aerosol Research · 2024Article
- A Regional-Scale Assessment-Based SARS-CoV-2 Variants Control Modeling with Implications for Infection Risk Characterization.Infection and drug resistance · 2024Article
- Risk of infection due to airborne virus in classroom environments lacking mechanical ventilation.PloS one · 2024Article
- Air Change Rate and SARS-CoV-2 Exposure in Hospitals and Residences: A Meta-Analysis.Aerosol science and technology : the journal of the American Association for Aerosol Research · 2024Article
- Associations between meteorological factors and COVID-19: a global scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- On-site airborne pathogen detection for infection risk mitigation.Chemical Society reviews · 2023Review
- Article
- An overview of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and engineering strategies to mitigate risk.Journal of building engineering · 2023Review
- A review on indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19- modelling and mitigation approaches.Journal of building engineering · 2023Review
- UVC-Based Air Disinfection Systems for Rapid Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 Present in the Air.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Systematic Review of the Key Factors Influencing the Indoor Airborne Spread of SARS-CoV-2.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- New dose-response model and SARS-CoV-2 quanta emission rates for calculating the long-range airborne infection risk.Building and environment · 2023Article
- Airborne influenza virus shedding by patients in health care units: Removal mechanisms affecting virus transmission.PloS one · 2023Article
- Assessment of indoor air quality and risk of COVID-19 infection in Spanish secondary school and university classrooms.Building and environment · 2022Article
- Zonal modeling of air distribution impact on the long-range airborne transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2.Applied mathematical modelling · 2022Article
- Air Surveillance for Viral Contamination with SARS-CoV-2 RNA at a Healthcare Facility.Food and environmental virology · 2022Article
- Viable SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant detected in aerosols in a residential setting with a self-isolating college student with COVID-19.Journal of aerosol science · 2022Article
- Contaminant removal and contaminant dispersion of air distribution for overall and local airborne infection risk controls.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Modeling the impact of indoor relative humidity on the infection risk of five respiratory airborne viruses.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A novel modified version of the Wells-Riley model was used to estimate the impact of relative humidity (RH) on the removal of respiratory droplets containing the SARS-CoV-2 virus by deposition through gravitational settling and its inactivation by biological decay; the effect of RH on susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 was not considered. These effects were compared with the removal achieved by increased ventilation rate with outdoor air. Modeling was performed assuming that the infected person talked continuously for 60 and 120 min. The results of modeling showed that the relative impact of RH on the infection risk depended on the ventilation rate and the size range of virus-laden droplets. A ventilation rate of 0.5 ACH, the change of RH between 20% and 53% was predicted to have a small effect on the infection risk, while at a ventilation rate of 6 ACH this change had nearly no effect. On the contrary, increasing the ventilation rate from 0.5 ACH to 6 ACH was predicted to decrease the infection risk by half which is remarkably larger effect compared with that predicted for RH. It is thus concluded that increasing the ventilation rate is more beneficial for reducing the airborne levels of SARS-CoV-2 than changing indoor RH. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The present results show that humidification to moderate levels of 40%-60% RH should not be expected to provide a significant reduction in infection risk caused by SARS-CoV-2, hence installing and running humidifiers may not be an efficient solution to reduce the risk of COVID-19 disease in indoor spaces. The results do however confirm that ventilation has a key role in controlling SARS-CoV-2 virus concentration in the air providing considerably higher benefits. The modified model developed in the present work can be used by public health experts, engineers, and epidemiologists when selecting different measures to reduce the infection risk from SARS-CoV-2 indoors allowing informed decisions concerning indoor environmental control.
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