Guelph company develops tool to model indoor COVID risk
A Guelph company has developed technology that allows owners and occupants to gauge the COVID risk levels in buildings, and create solutions to match.
ParticleOne is a joint initiative between environmental engineers RWDI, which specialize in building science, air flow, ventilation and contaminants, and Dr. Steven Newmaster, a genomics scientist at the University of Guelph. The company’s software uses current, community public health data such as infection and vaccination rates to build a local COVID risk profile. It combines that information with data about a building’s distinct layout, use, ventilation and location to create the structure’s particular risk profile.
“The software uses all that data to determine whether a space is prepared or whether it is at caution, meaning the risk of transmission of airborne viruses such as COVID is high,” says Dave Bullock, director, innovation & RWDI Ventures.
ParticleOne also uses input data to make recommends on how to lower a building’s risk profile. The system will recommend such strategies as changing the building’s HVAC configuration or bringing in more outdoor fresh air, on reducing the number of people in a building or recommending occupants wear particular types of personal protective equipment.
Bullock says ParticleOne was developed when RWDI was challenged to understand the risk levels of COVID in its own offices around the world, of which it has 26. RWDI developed the product to inform its reopening plans, and to give staff greater assurance that the spaces in which they were working were a safe as possible.
“Public health guidance is good information, but it doesn’t answer the question about whether a space is safe or how it can be made safer,” he says. “ParticleOne closes that gap, and helps building managers and occupants make decisions on how to make an impact. It’s also a valuable forecasting tool that can look at local public health trends, and can help occupants make risk assessments in, say, two weeks’ time.”
Although ParticleOne is mainly focused on reducing the risk of COVID inside shared spaces, the technology and solutions will also measure the risk for other pathogens and viruses such as the flu.
"Well-prepared organizations recognize that monitoring pathogen risk is the new normal. But we also know first-hand, after five decades of consulting on ventilation, air quality and measuring containments, that the benefits of 'cleaner air' go well beyond COVID,” says RWDI president and CEO, Michael J. Soligo. “Increased productivity, less absenteeism, and a healthier workforce ensures a healthier business overall.”
Featured image: ParticleOne’s software combines public health data with building profiles to create models for transmission of airborne pathogens such as the virus that causes COVID-19. (ParticleOne)