A comprehensive indoor hygiene concept for infection prevention and control within built environments

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that actions related to infection prevention and control (IPC) need to be made more efficient, especially in indoor public spaces. Many standalone technologies and solutions are available to increase the hygiene levels of indoor environments. However, it is not clear how these technologies and solutions can be combined and adapted to building processes such that they cover the entire indoor environment and life cycle of a building—from its design to its use and maintenance. The construction industry faces challenges in this regard because many actors are involved, and interactions at multiple levels can hinder the implementation of innovations. Therefore, the aim of this article is to establish a framework for IPC within built environments by introducing a new indoor hygiene concept (IHC). It provides a tool for implementing necessary IPC actions during a building’s life cycle to construct or renovate hygienic indoor environments. The IHC is based on the idea that all the elements of an indoor environment need to be considered to create a hygienic building. In addition, hygiene objectives need to be set at an early stage of the construction process and monitored throughout all the phases of a building’s life cycle. This comprehensive approach enables designers, engineers, and other actors involved in different stages of a building’s life cycle to see their roles in the IPC of shared public spaces. Adopting this approach can result in fewer infection transmissions via indoor environments and, in turn, cost benefits for society.

Healthy Buildings, a Webinar Report

“…Indirect contact infections can be prevented by touchless technologies and the application of antibacterial coatings on regularly touched surfaces ( Salonen et al, 2023 ).…”

“…Infection prevention strategies should be more effective in public indoor spaces as depicted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Exceptional ventilation solutions and air purification systems must be implemented to avoid the transmission of airborne infections ( Salonen et al, 2023 ).…”

“…According to EPA (2021), humans spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, and spatial qualities can affect physical and mental wellbeing. Therefore, health-related decisions are made in architectural, spatial, internal facilities, premise plumbing systems, and heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning design (Salonen et al, 2023). Hence, today it is common to speak about "healthy buildings," defined as "built structures that promote the positive well-being of individuals" (Awada et al, 2021).Despite the rapid need for architectural solutions during the pandemic, there was not much time for the valuable exchange of knowledge or validation from experts in various countries on this issue.…”

Methods for infection prevention in the built environment—a mini-review

“…We have previously introduced the indoor hygiene concept, summarized in Figure 1, which establishes a comprehensive infection prevention framework for built environments (Salonen et al, 2022). Creating healthy and hygienic buildings requires technical knowledge from the professionals, involved in different phases of the building's lifecycle, on how to improve the infectionprevention capacity of indoor environments.…”

“…A hygienic indoor environment is created throughout a building's lifecycle, starting from defining the hygiene objectives at an early stage, continuing to choose suitable solutions, and then implementing and maintaining them. A building's lifecycle starts from the needs assessment and design stages and continues to construction, commissioning, and use (Salonen et al, 2022). The icons in the figure are downloaded from Icons8 (Icons8, 2023).…”