In January 1912, in the dead of New York winter, an unusual new complex opened on the Upper East Side.
East River Homes were designed to help poor families ward off tuberculosis, a fearsome airborne disease, by turning dark, airless neighborhoods on their head. Corridors led to inner courtyards. Floor to ceiling windows opened onto balconies. The rooftops drew tenants outside with covered porches and reclining seats, in which tuberculosis patients convalesced.
Today, one of the most important lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic is that fresh air is important. It became clear that the virus spread easily via the air indoors. The experts urged building operators to increase the performance of their ventilation systems and people to keep their windows open.
The message: A well-ventilated building could be a bulwark against disease.
More than a century ago, when infectious diseases ravaged the cities of the United States and Europe, public health reformers preached the power of good ventilation, and open-air homes, hospitals, and schools sprang up in many places.
But society let that idea slip away. Scientific advances turned pathogens into problems that could be solved with drugs and vaccines, and not through infrastructure. The horizons were filled with air-conditioned towers. An energy crisis in the 1970s encouraged engineers to seal structures hermetically. And by the time the coronavirus hit, people were spending their days in schools, offices and homes that could barely breathe.
“So you have a virus that spreads almost entirely indoors crashing into our building infrastructure that we know is not designed for health,” said Joseph Allen, an expert in healthy buildings at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
In the 19th century city, infectious diseases—tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, typhoid fever—were a danger. Many aspects of the grimy urban environment, with its overflowing sanitary sewer and lack of potable water, fueled these outbreaks. But poor ventilation was also to blame.
In neighborhoods in New York and elsewhere, many rooms lacked windows to the outside, and buildings were sometimes so crowded that an open window provided little breeze.
The germ theory had not yet gained wide acceptance; Instead, the old miasma theory held that disease was the result of “bad air.” So sanitary reformers began calling for an overhaul of urban spaces, including improvements to ventilation. “A plentiful supply of fresh air, at a suitable temperature, is the first requisite of health in every place,” wrote the New York Citizens’ Association in a report published in 1865.
Outdoor air became part of the treatment for tuberculosis, inspiring the design of sanitariums and fueling an outdoor school movement.
As science has advanced, measures such as hand washing and chemical disinfection have become key strategies to reduce the spread of pathogens, particularly in settings such as operating rooms. For a while, this approach coexisted with the open-air strategy.
But further medical advances soon tipped the balance: antibiotics and vaccines became highly effective ways to control infectious diseases, making something as simple as an open window seem quaint.
Today we have an opportunity to wage a new war against bad air, experts said, one that will be aided by tools and technologies not available to 19th-century sanitary reformers.
“Our buildings should be viewed as a public health tool,” Allen said.
Some worry that the lesson in fresh air won’t stick. Public attention has shifted to other airborne threats, such as the acrid smoke from the wildfires that recently choked many parts of the United States. It might be tempting to re-seal the buildings.
That would be a mistake, experts say, in an era sure to bring more pandemics and air quality crises.
By: EMILY ANTHES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6778198, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-06-26 22:00:07
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