I remember working in a high rise building. First they fitted restraints on the windows, then eventually locked them closed. They were apparently afraid that people might jump to their death. Of course nobody considering suicide would ever think of breaking the window glass to get out. And no burglar would ever think of a way to open locked windows (except the ones that stole all the memory chips from the computers).
One of the first things Florence Nightingale did for patients was to get fresh air into the wards. Dr Kellog (yes the one responsible for cornflakes) insisted on the patients in the sanatarium getting plenty of fresh air.
Today the naked scientist on BBC breakfast started to talk about the fact that we might need to look at the idea of not recirculating air as much in buildings. All of those locked windows might be making the air unhealthy.
Interesting idea – but not a new subject. Aircraft have been working on recriculated air for a long time. There have been lots of arguments about the effect on people. Some studies have shown there is no effect in terms of respitory infection as a result of air recirculation – but it does have an effect on fuel use. But it may have missed a point. It may not be the recirculation of air that s the problem, but the amount of air.
I remember one hot day in the office when we all complained that the aircon was not good enough. An engineer came and measured the air coming out and said “Look the air is really cold”. Of course there was very little air – to cool a room you need air that is cold and enough of that air to be pumped out. There was not enough air being circulated.
Pumping more fresh air through aircon systems results in an increased power usage, and if we choose to go down that route we might find our carbon emissions increase because of the need for more electricity.
And that is where my long term campaign becomes important. The Campaign for Opening Windows, or COW for short. We have partly designed ourselves into a pandemic by the way we have built sealed boxes for people to work in. Fresh air is good, we have a long history of seeing a positive benefit from it.
Yes it might mean wearing cool clothes in summer and warm clothes in winter. But in my view fresh air is worth it.
Will you become a COW supporter?