Last spring, a small, self-contained and airtight modular building was set up in the parking lot outside Barnhart Hall.
Inside were scientific instruments and assorted pieces of equipment, including air samplers, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, HEPA filters, settling plates, particle counters, a stand-up desk and a treadmill. Over a period of two months, 11 UO students who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 entered the unit one at a time and were invited to sit, stand, talk, talk loudly, cough on purpose and walk on the treadmill during a three-day set of experiments.
Throughout the course of each study day, the researchers conducting the study would measure viral particles in the air and on surfaces as well as directly from the research participants’ nose and mouth. The idea was to measure how virus particles move through the air, controlling for three variables: ventilation, filtration and humidity.
Read more of the original article from MedicalXpress
