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Another Way To Protect Against COVID Beyond Masking and Social Distancing

This document discusses how low indoor humidity in winter can aid the transmission of viruses like COVID-19. It explains that indoor heating reduces indoor humidity levels, which allows virus particles to spread more easily. Maintaining indoor relative humidity between 40-60% can help reduce virus transmission.

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Bruna Rodrigues
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32 views5 pages

Another Way To Protect Against COVID Beyond Masking and Social Distancing

This document discusses how low indoor humidity in winter can aid the transmission of viruses like COVID-19. It explains that indoor heating reduces indoor humidity levels, which allows virus particles to spread more easily. Maintaining indoor relative humidity between 40-60% can help reduce virus transmission.

Uploaded by

Bruna Rodrigues
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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scientificamerican.com

Another Way to Protect against COVID


beyond Masking and Social
Distancing
Akiko Iwasaki

6-7 minutos

Boosting indoor humidity in winter can hinder transmission of the


virus

Credit: Getty Images

Note this is an updated version of an essay published in May,


2020, under the headline “One Key Factor in Whether COVID-19

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Will Wane This Summer”

The first reference to the seasonality of infectious respiratory


disease was recorded around 400 B.C., when the renowned
ancient Greek physician Hippocrates wrote the earliest account of
a winter epidemic of such an illness. Ever since, we have
pondered the impact of seasonal change on respiratory disease
prevalence. And rightly so, because even before COVID-19,
respiratory diseases were having a profound impact on global
health. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) reports that influenza has caused up to 61,000 deaths
annually since 2010—and the World Health Organization (WHO)
suggests that, globally, 650,000 deaths are associated with
seasonal flu each year.

So far, scientists have identified at least nine distinct viruses that


can cause respiratory tract infection and that demonstrate
seasonality in their outbreak pattern in temperate regions. Of
these, three viruses—influenza viruses, human coronaviruses and
human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)—clearly peak during
winter months.

One obvious possibility is that seasonal changes in climate directly


cause a spike in respiratory illness. However, the reality may be
much more complex. In fact, the answer to seasonal occurrence of
disease is more likely to be linked to our indoor environments
rather than those outside.

Today, most of us are likely to spend up to 90 percent of our time


indoors. This is a significant issue because our buildings have
become more sophisticated over the last century or so with the
introduction of central heating systems and the development of

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increasingly airtight, insulated building shells. The result is that we


are more and more disconnected from daily and seasonal outdoor
climatic fluctuations, especially in winter.

Research, including our own, is beginning to illustrate that there is


a relationship between the aerial transmission of viruses and
temperature and humidity, which is impacted by both indoor and
outdoor environments.

It is obvious that in winter, indoor heating causes a difference


between indoor and outdoor temperature. But what we are
increasingly coming to understand is that by heating our buildings
we are causing a reduction in the level of indoor relative humidity
(RH), which has a significant impact on disease spread. For
example, measurements of humidities in 40 residential apartments
in New York and in six high-quality commercial buildings in the
Midwest showed that indoor RH dropped to below 24 percent in
the winter. The evidence suggests, in other words, that when cold
outdoor air with little moisture to start with is brought indoors and
warmed to a temperature range of 20 to 24 degrees Celsius (68 to
75 degrees Fahrenheit) indoor relative humidity plummets.

This comparatively moisture-free air provides a clear path for


dispersal of airborne particles of viruses such as SARS-CoV2, the
pathogen that causes COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus survives
better at low temperatures and low humidity. Estimated virus half-
life was more than 24 hours at 10 degrees C (50 degrees F) and
40 percent relative humidity, but only 90 minutes at 27 degrees C
(80 degrees F) and 65 percent relative humidity. Our own research
indicates that dry air also reduces the ability of our body’s cilia—
hairlike projections on cells lining airways—to remove viral
particles and prevent them from reaching the lungs. Finally, the

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immune system’s ability to respond to pathogens is suppressed in


drier environments. Indeed, a study conducted in New South
Wales, Australia, demonstrates an inverse relationship between
relative humidity and transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, this research could play a


vital role in how we manage and counter the disease. Until we
have enough vaccines to cover a large portion of human
populations, we must keep practicing social distancing, mask
wearing and avoiding crowding indoors. In addition to these
measures, we can increase indoor humidity to combat the spread
and prevent more severe disease from COVID-19.

This is why I and others specializing in immunobiology and


infection control are urging the scientific community and others to
support our petition, which calls on the WHO to urgently put the
link between indoor air humidity and the transmission of viruses,
including SARS-CoV-2, at the front of the global health debate. We
are requesting that the WHO produce clear guidelines on the
minimum lower limit of air humidity in buildings. We recommend
maintaining relative humidity between 40 to 60 percent to
maximize the benefits of humidity but not the drawbacks of too
much humidity that promote mold growth.

We hope that through this move we will reduce the spread of


SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne viruses and safeguard residents,
students, patients and employees—which is crucial for protecting
public buildings, such as nursing homes, hospitals, schools and
offices. This is not just about getting America, and the world, back
to work. It is also to offer protection for our health care workers.
While of course there is a complex web of influences at play, we
now know enough about indoor relative humidity’s impact on

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disease for it to be viewed as a significant factor. Indoor air control


is the next frontier to improve human health and reduce
transmission of various types of viruses, including SARS-COV-2.

Sign up for Scientific American’s free newsletters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Akiko Iwasaki

Akiko Iwasaki is Waldemar Von Zedtwitz professor in the


department of immunobiology and the department of molecular,
cellular and developmental biology at Yale University and an
investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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