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. 2022 Jul 1:219:109180.
doi: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109180. Epub 2022 May 13.

Air quality in an air ventilated fitness center reopening for pilot study during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

Eva-Maria Huessler  1 , Anika Hüsing  1 , Markus Vancraeyenest  2 , Karl-Heinz Jöckel  1 , Bernadette Schröder  1
Affiliations

Air quality in an air ventilated fitness center reopening for pilot study during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown

Eva-Maria Huessler et al. Build Environ. .

Abstract

During COVID-19 lockdowns less people were able to fulfill the WHO recommendations on physical activity. Also, fitness centers were associated to SARS-CoV-2 superspreader events. However, the risk of infection can be strongly reduced by outdoor air ventilation. To investigate whether a reopening of fitness centers can be justified, CO 2 concentration was measured during four days in a fitness center. Except for one room, the observed CO 2 concentrations were mainly under 800 ppm, which stands for high air quality. The strong decrease of CO 2 concentration during the 15 min evacuations following each hour of workout, speaks for the functionality of the ventilation system. In particular, the number of people present in the studio has a strong impact on the estimated CO 2 value. In a linear mixed model, an additional CO 2 concentration of 2.24 ppm (95 % confidence interval [2.04, 2.43]) was estimated for this setting with a total volume of 4065 m 3 in the fitness center and a possible air change rate per hour up to 10. This means, that for 45 visitors, 100 ppm can be added to the predicted concentration. To summarize, a combination of ventilation, restriction of the number of visitors and surveying the CO 2 concentration allowing for further restrictions in case of need, seems to be an adequate means to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in fitness centers.

Keywords: Air quality; CO2 concentration; COVID-19 pandemic; Fitness center; Risk of infection; Ventilation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Boxplots of the numbers of visitors per time slot displayed by scenario, where the mean is shown by a diamond.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Development of the CO2 concentration over time for the areas Fitness 1, Fitness 2 and free weight. The technical threshold of 650 ppm, the value from which the ventilation system starts to increase the ventilation flow, is marked by the red horizontal line. The black dashed vertical line represents the time when there was the change/switch from scenario B to scenario A.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Development of the CO2 concentration over time in the ladygym separated for sensor 1 and sensor 2. The technical threshold of 650 ppm, the value from which the ventilation system starts to increase the ventilation flow, is marked by the red horizontal line. The black dashed vertical line represents the time when there was the change/switch from scenario B to scenario A.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Development of the CO2 concentration over time in the fitness classroom. The different classes are displayed by different colors with the class names specified in the legend. The technical threshold of 650 ppm, the value from which the ventilation system starts to increase the ventilation flow, is marked by the red horizontal line. The black dashed vertical line represents the time when it was switched from scenario B to scenario A. The number of participants for each class is displayed by asterisks.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Development of the CO2 concentration within a time slot averaged by room (left panel) and scenario (right panel).
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Estimated graph of the development of the CO2 concentration over time within a slot, in the area of Fitness 1 with 51 visitors in scenario B.
Fig. A.1
Fig. A.1
Floor plan FitX first floor.
Fig. A.2
Fig. A.2
Floor plan FitX second floor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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