We have all heard the reasons why dust containment precautions, in general, are important. Drywall dust and sawdust can get in between floorboards, place enormous strain on the furnace filters, and clog up heat exchangers, not to mention condensing coils too. It is not too difficult to encase everything in plastic, make a nice airtight seal, and then install a temporary hose for the dust to travel out of. While this may be enough to save an HVAC system, it will not be enough to protect the people that need to continue using the space as you work.

Another one bites the dust

There are countless examples of settings where air quality is of high priority: hospitals treating sick patients, classrooms full of small children, care homes for the elderly, and so on. Sometimes, in addition to the standard dust containment practices, arrangements can be made to re-locate the individuals elsewhere (i.e., a portable classroom, a temporary placement at an alternate home) as a failsafe. In cases where this is impossible things become difficult. One such example would be patients receiving treatment in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) where they are almost impossible to move.

As the coronavirus pandemic has put ICUs everywhere at their maximum capacity, hospital administrators, and their subordinate bureaucracies, are thinking differently about what can be done when construction or maintenance in these settings must proceed. Dust containment is certainly a major concern for patients that are battling acute respiratory illness, whether they are receiving intensive care, or are in a more stable condition. Cutting into drywall to access pipes or ducts would be an incredibly risky job if it is done in a room where there are five ventilator machines working at a time. Because it is so difficult to move patients that use these machines, building maintenance in these areas is often neglected. Sometimes it has to be arranged sporadically, during brief windows of time when patient use of the space in question happens to be low.

This is not good for the long run efficacy of the health care system. Poorly maintained piping and duct work can set the stage for poor air quality, often due to mold growth inside walls surrounding leaky pipes, or elevated levels of airborne particulate brought on by compromised ventilation. Essentially, the short-run preservation of the surrounding air quality brought on by not doing maintenance is also responsible for the gradual decline of the air quality in the long run. This is especially devastating for the patients that have acute respiratory illnesses, like COVID-19. What has resulted is a system where people with respiratory illnesses are at an elevated risk of complications during their hospital stays compared to the rest of the population. This problem is far harder to solve than that of simple dust containment.

Taking care of business

What if there were a way that someone could stay on a medical unit in hospital, and be totally shielded from all the airborne particulate floating around from a construction crew? It turns out that there is such a thing. It is called a mobile dust containment unit. The idea behind these is simple – surround the person in a small structure that will not allow any external air to enter it. Air filters are responsible for removing any harmful particulate from the air that enters the structure. These devices are highly effective at maintaining a stellar air quality for the user, even when there are high levels of harmful particulate suspended in the air outside of it.

The rise of this technology has made hospitals a great deal safer, because construction and maintenance crews can now do any kind of job that might be required, and not be impeded by concerns about potentially harming anyone else in the process. Dust containment strategies are now at a new threshold. They have gone from being chiefly about getting everyone out of the room and sealing off the room, to being about building a safe space around the individual. The hope is that this technology will steer things in the direction of having more robust maintenance schedules, which will be safer for everyone.