Page 6 - SFL Cooperator Fall 2020

6 THE SOUTH FLORIDA COOPERATOR
—FALL 2020
SOFLCOOPERATOR.COM
expert consensus is that HVAC equip-
ment does have the capacity to spread
the virus, questions of what exactly to do
about that remain. What precautions can
we take to protect ourselves?
One facts-based option to make air
conditioning systems safer is to use high-
efficiency filters to essentially strain dan-
gerous contaminants out of the air before
they get to anyone’s lungs. Peter Cata-
pano, a mechanical engineer with O & S
Associates, a national engineering firm
based in Hackensack, New Jersey, says the
answer lies in high-efficiency particulate
air (HEPA) filters, an existing technology
currently used in all kinds of medical fa-
cilities to filter out many bacterial, fungal,
and viral particles.
HEPA technology is beneficial in both
common areas and private apartment set-
tings where HVAC systems are active—
basically anywhere a large filtration
system uses ducts to move air from
place to place. As to individual
window or through-wall air condi-
tioning units, there doesn’t appear
to be any consensus at this time on
how—or even whether—they help
spread COVID-19. That said, com-
mon sense would indicate that if
a person or persons were carrying
the virus, and were congregated
in an enclosed room cooled by an
individual unit, the circulating air
currents could potentially pro-
pel viral bodies around the space,
making it more likely that someone
would inhale them and themselves be-
come infected.
UV vs. COVID
Nardel also suggests in the same article
that ultraviolet (UV) lights—which have
been used for decades to sterilize the air
of tuberculosis bacteria—could be used
against the coronavirus. Catapano agrees,
but with some caveats. “Scientifically, and
through testing, ultraviolet light does
kill the virus if properly administered,”
he says. But unfortunately, “[o]ne of the
hazards of UV is that it’s also detrimental
to humans. It causes skin cancer, and can
cause blindness, and it also causes plas-
tic substances to deteriorate. However, it’s
been tested and documented that if prop-
erly applied for a specific period of time,
it will destroy the virus.”
William T. Payne, a mechanical engi-
neer also with O & S Associates, adds that
“UV has been widely used in healthcare
and hospitals for a long time. It’s a tried-
and-true technology, but there is a debate
as to whether or not anyone should be
exposed to that light—whether the build-
ing has to be empty or not [during treat-
ment]. So, running it at night in common
areas when no one is around could be an
answer to this question, but I would say
absolutely that it’s a viable technology to ings that have mechanical ventilation,
consider when seeking to kill the virus on their systems are taking fresh air from
surfaces.”
Considerations Beyond COVID
While technologies and treatments under the apartment doors. That means
for COVID-19 are of course foremost in you shouldn’t use a towel or other de-
everyone’s mind these days, there’s much vice to reduce that draft—you need that
more to be considered when evaluating under-door airflow. That air is then ex-
the quality of air and ventilation in your hausted through roof fans, or some other
building. In the end, the most important type of equipment through the kitchens
factor for all air quality questions is venti-
lation—how air moves around the build-
ing. To a great extent, the analysis and re-
mediation required for proper ventilation balance of the building.”
depends on the type of building, as well as
its age, size, and design. Prewar buildings continues. “The first strategy for dealing
are generally ventilated by windows and with smoke and cooking smells is mak-
courtyards, for example, while post-war ing sure that your building pressurization
high-rise buildings benefit from advances is correct—that you have proper posi-
in technology that usually include me-
chanical ventilation systems within the apartment. After you solve that problem,
building core.
According to Payne, “Prewar and low-
er to mid-rise buildings fall into two cat-
egories: You have mechanical ventilation, lem like mold, that’s easy—find the leak
or you have ventilation by typical court-
yards. Even way back when these prop-
erties were built, there was a [building] out and disinfect the problem area, and
code… that said, if you have open win-
dows, they account for some amount of doesn’t work on smokers, however—or on
ventilation. Over the decades these codes viruses. You also can’t remove people who
have gotten more and more complicated. have contracted COVID.
In newer buildings, we have mechanical
ventilation—which, by the way, gives us certain conditions,” Payne explains. So for
more options dealing with contaminants the moment, in the midst of the COVID
like the COVID virus.”
When it comes to air and ventilation simply improving ventilation. Buildings
systems in multifamily buildings, among must develop aggressive policies to keep
the most common complaints is the trav-
eling, lingering smells of cigarette smoke mechanical shape, while making special
and cooking odors. “If you smell cigarette consideration for keeping the community
or marijuana smoke, or cooking odors,” safe from COVID-19 as well.
says Payne, “that tells you that your build-
ing isn’t breathing properly. Which means
theoretically that you may have a greater
concern about COVID-19 as well, be-
cause air isn’t being properly exchanged
or exhausted.”
To achieve proper air exchange, Payne
explains, your building should be slightly
positively pressurized, meaning there
should be more fresh air coming in than
leaving. “If you look at apartment build-
the roof to the basement, and pressur-
izing the building, typically pushing air
and bathrooms. If you’re smelling some-
one else’s cooking smells, that means that
there’s a problem with the pressurization
This problem can be managed, Payne
tive pressure from the corridors into the
technologies such as charcoal filters and
other products that are known to absorb
odors can be put to use.”
At the end of
the day, howev-
er, when dealing
with air quality
and ventilation
problems,
the
first and prob-
ably most ef-
ficient method
is to eliminate
the source of
the problem in
the first place.
That’s
easier
said than done,
of course. If you
have a prob-
that’s letting moisture accumulate, and
get rid of it. Then clean up the mold, dry
you should be good to go. That strategy
“Source control really only applies to
crisis, the answer may not be limited to
their property’s ventilation systems in top
n
A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for
The South Florida Cooperator, and is a pub-
lished novelist.
SECURING...
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“One of the hazards of UV is that it’s also det-
rimental to humans. It causes skin cancer, and
can cause blindness, and it also causes plastic
substances to deteriorate. However, it’s been
tested and documented that if properly applied
for a specific period of time, it will destroy the
[corona]virus.”
—Peter Catapano
the largest property workers union in the
country. She explained that in New York,
there were early agreements with the Realty
Advisory Board (RAB) to extend sick pay
for workers, incorporate guidance from the
Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion (CDC) for employee protection, and
allow flexible staffing in order to employ
workers laid off from buildings in the com-
mercial or office sector, or to fill shortages
where staff needed to quarantine after ex-
posure to or contraction of the virus, or if
they had underlying health concerns and
were therefore staying home or isolated.
According to González, while most 32BJ
members working in residential properties
were happy to be employed at a time when
millions of other Americans were losing
their jobs, they still had to contend with the
risks of contracting and spreading the vi-
rus on their commute to and from work—
which by and large involved either public
transportation or carpooling, at a time
when mask wearing and social distancing
had not become municipally mandated.
And their risks didn’t end when they got
to work: as states and municipalities locked
down in the spring, PPE was in woefully
short supply, residents who were normally
at work or school were now confined to the
buildings, and official guidance was sparse
and inconsistent, to say the least.
Although there was “a lot of mental and
emotional strain [on] the guys” at the time,
González expressed that the closeness of
residential building employees’ relation-
ships with those who live in and operate
their workplaces gave many workers the
motivation to maintain the “continuity of
service” that their jobs require. And across
the nation, many boards, residents, and
managers offered accommodation and ap-
preciation to their property service work-
ers with free parking (made available when
many owners with cars fled urban apart-
ments for more spacious and isolated living
situations), hot meals, evening applause,
and PPE donations.
At The Residences at Pier 4 in Bos-
ton, for example, general manager Jeremy
DiFlaminies with FirstService Residen-
tial enlisted his wife to sew upwards of
60 masks for building staff. Residents of
Seward Park Cooperative in lower Manhat-
tan organized a fund to provide meals to
staff under a partnership with the co-op’s
commercial tenant restaurants—thereby
supporting local businesses, keeping their
own commercial tenants afloat, and of-
fering appreciation to their hard-working
building employees in one fell swoop. And
in Miami, a group of condo boards called
the Brickell Alliance organized two first-
responders appreciation events with ban-
ners and a parade of cars honking for the
police, firefighters, EMTs, and their own
SUPPORTING...
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