I think it is more likely than not that failure to pass this bill as is was net harmful.
Ozone air cleaners are a significant source of indoor air pollution, producing indoor particulate levels just slightly less than second hand smoke. Particulates account for 85%+ of morbidity from indoor air pollution in residences. There is a serious harm in keeping these air cleaners on the market. All major health and air quality organizations oppose them. But there is no ban on their sale, so they remain available to uninformed customers. Killing this bill keeps a major harm on the market.
There are many pollution control technologies besides Far-UVC that can reduce infection risk, including UV technologies at longer wavelengths that do not produce ozone. Far-UVC is not a far superior technology, and it’s not clear to me that a setback in the Far-UVC industry meaningfully delays adoption of infection control technologies generally.
Scrubbers are likely going to be necessary on Far-UVC devices because of how much pollution they produce. As HVAC engineers, we have a duty of care that will likely prohibit using control technologies that worsen indoor air quality. There isn’t an easy solution to the problem beyond scrubbers; if you use ventilation or filtration to control it, you could have just gone with a ventilation or filtration solution from the start.
The majority of CA buildings are in a mild climate and energy recovery and or economizing is likely going to be a cheaper solution overall compared to room air cleaners in new facilities.
Overall, I’m discouraged at the broad EA obsession with Far-UVC instead of coordinating with leading organizations like ASHRAE to promote the uptake of infectious disease control standards and design generally. In this case, that obsession did cause clear harm, with unclear benefit.
Hi Matthew, thanks for the clear and thoughtful response. I just want to emphasize first that my team really hoped this bill would pass, with our amendment, but the political process didn’t allow for that. Regardless of our intentions, it’s reasonable for you to still identify harm in the outcome.
All my arguments were laid out in the post—I’d guess we just have different grounding assumptions about, among other things: the importance of preparing to fight future airborne superspreading-driven pathogens, the potential for far-UV to become a cheaper and more accessible consumer product than longer wavelengths, the potential relative impact of far-UV vs alternatives like filtration, the impact that far-UV could have on pathogens in an already reasonably-ventilated room, and the value of investing in far-UV equipped with scrubbers.
Of course, I just said “potential” and “could” a lot above. You’re right that the benefit was uncertain. As I wrote, I had serious concerns during this effort, but we couldn’t avoid acting under uncertainty.
I also want to emphasize that far-UV is in a particularly vulnerable development stage relative to its potential value, but we’re fighting to improve indoor air quality broadly, not just focusing on far-UV. 1Day Sooner’s current IAQ project is more focused on filter implementation.
I think it is more likely than not that failure to pass this bill as is was net harmful.
Ozone air cleaners are a significant source of indoor air pollution, producing indoor particulate levels just slightly less than second hand smoke. Particulates account for 85%+ of morbidity from indoor air pollution in residences. There is a serious harm in keeping these air cleaners on the market. All major health and air quality organizations oppose them. But there is no ban on their sale, so they remain available to uninformed customers. Killing this bill keeps a major harm on the market.
There are many pollution control technologies besides Far-UVC that can reduce infection risk, including UV technologies at longer wavelengths that do not produce ozone. Far-UVC is not a far superior technology, and it’s not clear to me that a setback in the Far-UVC industry meaningfully delays adoption of infection control technologies generally.
Scrubbers are likely going to be necessary on Far-UVC devices because of how much pollution they produce. As HVAC engineers, we have a duty of care that will likely prohibit using control technologies that worsen indoor air quality. There isn’t an easy solution to the problem beyond scrubbers; if you use ventilation or filtration to control it, you could have just gone with a ventilation or filtration solution from the start.
The majority of CA buildings are in a mild climate and energy recovery and or economizing is likely going to be a cheaper solution overall compared to room air cleaners in new facilities.
Overall, I’m discouraged at the broad EA obsession with Far-UVC instead of coordinating with leading organizations like ASHRAE to promote the uptake of infectious disease control standards and design generally. In this case, that obsession did cause clear harm, with unclear benefit.
Hi Matthew, thanks for the clear and thoughtful response. I just want to emphasize first that my team really hoped this bill would pass, with our amendment, but the political process didn’t allow for that. Regardless of our intentions, it’s reasonable for you to still identify harm in the outcome.
All my arguments were laid out in the post—I’d guess we just have different grounding assumptions about, among other things: the importance of preparing to fight future airborne superspreading-driven pathogens, the potential for far-UV to become a cheaper and more accessible consumer product than longer wavelengths, the potential relative impact of far-UV vs alternatives like filtration, the impact that far-UV could have on pathogens in an already reasonably-ventilated room, and the value of investing in far-UV equipped with scrubbers.
Of course, I just said “potential” and “could” a lot above. You’re right that the benefit was uncertain. As I wrote, I had serious concerns during this effort, but we couldn’t avoid acting under uncertainty.
I also want to emphasize that far-UV is in a particularly vulnerable development stage relative to its potential value, but we’re fighting to improve indoor air quality broadly, not just focusing on far-UV. 1Day Sooner’s current IAQ project is more focused on filter implementation.