New building regulations needed to protect workers
Office buildings will need better air-filtration systems in post-pandemic times.

By Sougata Mukherjee
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jun 7, 2021

The idea to write this column came from the National Hockey League.

Just hours after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced relaxed Covid rules for everyone (vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals), we thought the NHL playoff series between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Nashville Predators would have a full house in attendance. After all, Cooper is a big Canes fan. We thought wrong.

The NHL had other ideas. The league reiterated to all the teams that unless the arenas are equipped with a more sophisticated HVAC system, fans still need to be distanced from each other. Within days, a new air conditioning system was installed at PNC Arena that allows for a recalibration of outside air flow requirements, essentially meaning the building was drawing more air from outside at quicker intervals.

The math is simple, really. If the building is 10 percent full, everyone in that building is getting 10 times the ventilation air, according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the standard-setting body for homes, restaurants and office buildings.

So all this talk about sports arenas made me think about a slightly more important matter: If arena air systems are being reinforced to make it safer to watch live sports (for three hours), what are we doing with the office buildings where workers are there in excess of eight hours?

The answer, so far, is not much.

Currently, a new commercial building’s certificate of occupancy is not tied to the health of the building. Rather, it is tied to the physical safety. While HVAC systems are reviewed, building health does not play a role in green-lighting a building to open up.

In fact, we currently have minimal rules regarding airflow in commercial buildings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already has come out with recommendations suggesting building owners should be running ventilation systems with maximum outside airflow for two hours before and after occupied times, and boosting the percentage of outdoor air the system uses.

Sounds easy, right?

Not really. For one, the change will be expensive. Introducing UV-C technology to a building’s current system and adding things such as high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters has a big price tag.

Who’s going to pay for that?

Here’s the easy part: Before signing any lease renewals, employers should demand these office building owners upgrade their air-filtration system before allowing workers to go back to work. Nothing will matter if an office building circulates sick air.

And companies that own their own buildings? They should upgrade their systems as well.

It may be time for new air regulations in commercial buildings that will need annual reviews from the health departments of every state. As much as we hate new regulations, if you want people to sit and work under one roof every day for eight hours or more, you will need a better air-filtration system. And we have not even touched the subject of potential legal liability for companies and building owners. The U.S. has billions of square feet of office buildings that may be more than 20 to 30 years old and house millions of workers across the nation.

We may be on the back end in dealing with Covid-19, but what about the next virus? How do we protect our workers then?

The safety of commercial buildings is extremely important to monitor. But now, the health of these buildings should be, too.