Complex Models and Simple Results in Airborne Disease Transmission

Details

• Journal Article:
  Healthy Buildings Europe 2025, June 8-11, 2025, Reykjavik, Iceland
• Personal Author:
  Bennett, James
• Description:
  The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic energized all fields related to indoor air, including exposure modelling. The confluence of scientific disciplines that responded to the devastation of COVID-19 has created a need to be precise with language. Exposure is presented as the rate of dose accumulation via air, and dose as the product of the dosing rate and the dosing duration. From this model of dose as the environmental determinant of infection, complexities are acknowledged, and simplifications are sought. The analysis asserts that as models become more complex and accurate by inclusion of real variables and dynamics, their results often converge to simpler, narrower solution spaces. For larger sample sizes, uncertainty in dose was found to be lower than the uncertainties in exposure and in exposure duration when dose is their product. The present analysis examines some common assumptions, like complete mixing, and their criticisms toward providing what is hoped are useful perspectives.
• Subjects:
  Commuicable Diseases COVID-19 Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: CFD; COVID-19; Complete Mixing; Air Travel; Wells-Riley SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Indoor Environments; Infectious Diseases; Exposure Levels; Computational Fluid Dynamics; CFD; Disease Transmission; Models;
• Source:
  Healthy Buildings Europe 2025, June 8-11, 2025, Reykjavik, Iceland. Herndon, VA: International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQC), 2025 Jun; :386-392
• Publisher:
  International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQC)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Conference Publication ; Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; Chicago Region [OSHA]
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DFSE - Division of Field Studies and Engineering
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  9 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20071213
• Email:
  jbennett@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:00cb66f95283b162f998a5b92070c128505f4c1d1dd85b8c7279d49e61c336983411f2aab40c1e7797fb56f679afbe8a5384678b31c6d42ff2c336937f89d031
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/258692/cdc_258692_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.06 MB ]