Indoor Air Hydration Is Our Best Medicine 

Almost overnight, a mutating member of the ubiquitous Coronavirus family wreaked havoc in our homes, communities, and – in fact– the entire world. Confusion about routes of COVID-19 transmission and the role of our own immune system in disease progression resulted in fear about how to safely inhabit our homes, schools, offices, and all enclosed spaces. As we emerge from the pandemic, let us remember one important lesson so that we can manage our indoor environments to both decrease airborne disease transmission and support our health and productivity. We have known for a long time that environments influence health. Yet, as the fields of medicine and construction (with all the subcomponents) became increasingly technical over time, communication between these professional silos diminished. Research motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to preexisting studies in microbiology, medicine and building science, has once again reminded us that humans need mid-range levels of water vapor in our living spaces to be healthy. Conversely, dry indoor air during heating seasons in cold climates promotes viral respiratory diseases as well as a host of other health problems. Safely maintaining indoor relative humidity between 40% to 60% will diminish the transmission of airborne infectious diseases and support human health – in all seasons. Dr. Taylor will present studies showing the health benefits of hydrated air and will discuss the opportunities and challenges in maintaining an indoor relative humidity of 40%–60% worldwide.

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BIO

Dr. Taylor’s work focuses on understanding the relationship between the built environment and occupant health with the goal of managing indoor air quality to decrease acute and chronic diseases, and optimize health and wellbeing. After receiving her MD from Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, she practiced clinical medicine for the next several decades. While caring for hospitalized patients, Dr. Taylor became convinced that indoor environmental management played a substantial, yet unaddressed, role in patient infections. Determined to gain a better understanding of buildings and mechanical systems, she returned to school and obtained a master’s degree in Architecture. Her work now focuses on designing, building, and maintaining all occupied buildings with the explicit goal of optimizing human health and productivity. During this work, she realized that there was little medical data on how the indoor environment affects human physiology. Dr. Taylor is the CEO and Founder of Building4Health, Inc (B4H). The B4H sensor suite, analytical platform and occupant facing dashboard make visible the complex relationship between indoor air metrics and human physiology – thus allowing a determination of whether an indoor ecosystem has a positive or negative impact on occupant health. The B4H health standard pioneers the evaluation the impact of the indoor environment on human health. Dr. Taylor is an active member of ASHRAE, and is a member of their Epidemic Task Force, Environmental Health Committee, and is a Distinguished Lecturer. She received the “Top 20 Women to Watch in Healthcare Engineering” award in 2019 and is a recipient of the ASHRAE Presidential Award for distinguished service during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also writes a monthly column for Engineered Systems.