Issue - meetings

By Councillor Jim Campbell – Ventilation

“1)      Committee recognises that most people spend more time indoors than outdoors and acknowledges the emerging literature on the significantly elevated risks of airborne transmission of COVID 19 within poorly ventilated indoor spaces, most recently outlined in the report by Prof Peter Guthrie commissioned by Sir Patrick Vallance, The UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser.

2)       Committee notes:

·       that governments around the world are urgently investigating indoor air quality within buildings to better understand any emerging risks;

·       that poorly ventilated School Buildings are a particular cause of concern, and evidence suggests they can negatively impact the development of children; 

·       that few standards exist around indoor air quality, and it is not a subject that is widely understood in the context of today’s buildings, despite being a design principle in Victorian times;

·       that inexpensive monitoring of carbon dioxide levels within a building are a very good proxy of overall indoor air quality and could be rapidly deployed in the City of Edinburgh estate.

3)       Committee commends Council Officers for having distributed carbon dioxide sensors to Head Teachers and requests the Chief Executive to prepare an urgent report for this Committee in one cycle on indoor air quality across the most heavily used buildings in the Council estate.  This should include the data gathered by Head Teachers with an accompanying commentary covering the methodology used and observations so far.

4)       Finally, the Chief Executive is asked to indicate a level of carbon dioxide concentration in high use indoor Council settings above which Members should be concerned that an unreasonable risk of Coronavirus transmission exists.