Background

In October 2021, our team reviewed Public Health Ontario’s COVID-19 guidance for settings such as shelters and long-term care homes. We found that this guidance did not include ventilation or filtration, which can help reduce transmission of infectious disease. You can see the detailed, published findings from our review here.

About the project

To help respond to gaps in guidance, we created plain language resources, such as an indoor air checklist for community spaces. In addition, in April 2022, we launched a virtual ventilation and filtration consultation program, which gives people working in community spaces direct access to indoor air quality experts from University of Toronto and University of Waterloo. Thirty community organizations such as shelters, drop-ins and community clinics came to see us during the first year of the program. In April 2023, we sent them an online evaluation. Representatives from 11 organizations completed the survey. You can see the detailed, published findings from our evaluation here.

What we learned

When presented with brief access to expert support and tailored plain language guidance, people working in community spaces increased the use of ventilation and filtration to help control COVID-19. For example, following consultations, some facilities: increased maintenance of HVAC systems; upgraded bathroom fans that exhaust to the outside; and, increased use of portable air filters. While people took additional action following our sessions, we also learned about barriers that people faced. These included:

• Lack of long-term, sustainable funding for ventilation and filtration in community spaces;
• Lack of emphasis on ventilation and filtration in public health guidance and infection prevention and control materials;
• Confusing information from public health organizations about the utility of portable air filters (portable air filters are useful!);
• Lack of free, reliable, expert services available to come onsite to diagnose indoor air and other building-related issues.

For more information: To make an appointment for the virtual ventilation and filtration program, please contact Pearl Buhariwala at pearl.buhariwala@unityhealth.to. For more information about the paper, please contact at Amy Katz at amy.katz@utoronto.ca

To learn more and view resources about indoor air quality and community spaces, click here.