The risk is that the hour particles floating in the air will be breathed in by unsuspecting folks.
It seems that bad news these days is on the increase while the good news is in short supply. Part of the reason is that bad news is, unfortunately, more interesting than good news. Several consecutive days of perfect 71°F sunny weather will not make any headlines but 1 bad storm that causes an electrical outage will be widely reported by every news outlet in the area. The 1 exception is interests. The winning team will be celebrated while the losers go lake beach house largely unnoticed. A similar situation occurs in our daily lives with our cars, computers, appliances, as well as a home’s Heating, Ventilation & A/C system. If they are running smoothly, every one of us don’t provide them a hour thought but when they stop toiling or chop down, every one of us immediately begin to feel worried over a big repair bill. The worrisome news with Heating, Ventilation & A/C systems this week is that even if they are toiling perfectly, there are potential health risks, but filters for Heating, Ventilation & A/C have Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values or MERV ratings that run from 1 to 20. Filters capable of trapping germs as well as viruses have high MERV ratings of 17-20, a rating way above the normal household filters that have single-digit MERV ratings. The risk is that the hour particles floating in the air will be breathed in by unsuspecting folks. The solution, especially in big commercial buildings is to increase ventilation to dilute any germs as well as direct the stream of air into less populated areas so any pathogen can settle as well as die instead of infecting someone new. The other “must-do” is to sanitize the ductworks regularly. That may not be great news, but at least it’s not bad news.