WEBVTT - To Make a Building Healthier, Stop Sanitizing Everything 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.400 I'm Carol Masster. Here's one of the feature stories in 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:06.000 the Bloomberg Business Week magazine this week. Like our bodies, 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.560 the buildings we inhabit are teeming with microbes. Yet despite 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:13.200 spending as much as our time indoors, especially now that 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.600 we're hunkering down for the winter during a pandemic, we 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.560 know very little about these indoor microbes, which scientists began 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.400 studying only in the past fifteen years. And as tempting 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.000 as it might be to dump bleach all over every 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.880 surface in an attempt to kill COVID nine team, a 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.640 more serious risk is that attempts to sterilize our surroundings 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.640 can kill off bacteria critical for human health, which is 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:41.160 why there's growing interest in putting bacteria to work cleaning. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.239 One company in the space is already worth about sixteen 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:48.120 billion dollars, and its microbes are key ingredients in dozens 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.159 of home care brands. This episode is brought to you 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:56.480 by Principal Financial Group, combining actionable insights with specialized solutions 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.680 to help you meet your investment goals. Get to know 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:04.240 h at Principal dot com. How to heal a building, 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:09.679 open the windows, stop the obsessive sanitizing spread some good 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.720 germs around a building, like a person is only as 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:20.679 healthy as its microbiome, Caroline Winter. Four years ago, a 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.440 doctoral student in architecture asked Luke Leung to help him 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.039 come up with a thesis topic. Leung, an engineer whose 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:32.640 projects include the world's tallest building, the bird Khalifa in Dubai, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:37.120 proposed the question what is heaven. The student did a 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:41.840 lot of research and found that no matter the faith Islam, Judaism, Christianity, 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.200 heaven is always a place with a garden and running water, 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:50.160 recalls Leung, director of the Sustainable Engineering Studio of Skidmore 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.600 Owings and Meryl the architectural behemoth better known as s 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.680 O M SO. Then we started questioning, if that is heaven, 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.400 what exactly is the place we are living in. In 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:06.040 the Western world, humans spend of their time indoors. The 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:11.320 average American spends even more than that inside buildings or cars. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.400 For years, scientists have sounded the alarm that are disconnect 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.240 from the outdoors is linked to a host of chronic 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:24.760 health problems, including allergies, asthma, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, and obesity. 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:29.040 More recently, experts in various fields have begun studying wide buildings, 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.200 even those designed to be as germ free as possible, 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:37.119 are vectors for disease, not the least COVID nineteen there 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.000 was a study of more than seventy cases in China, 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.359 and guess how many people caught the disease outdoors? Leong 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:48.960 asks just two. Early testing following Black Lives Matter protests 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:53.080 in Minnesota also suggested that transmission of stars Cove two 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:58.040 outside is rare, even when thousands of people gather, talking, yelling, 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.679 and chanting, at least when mo to those people wear masks. 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.240 Out of more than thirteen thousand protesters tested, only one 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:10.480 point eight percent were positive. Other states showed similar results. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.240 Leon says a misalignment with nature in building design is 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.640 partly to blame for our scourge of chronic diseases and 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.560 the current pandemic. The relative lack of airflow and sunlight 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.880 is an obvious issue. Temperature, humidity, and indoor air pollution 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.440 also play a role, but there's another less discussed factor, 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.520 the microbiome of the built environment, which encompasses trillions of microbes, 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:40.480 including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Until about fifteen years ago, 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.800 very few scientists and even fewer architects, designers, and engineers 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.920 paid attention to indore microbes, with the exception of problematic 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.520 outcropping such as black mold and legion Ella, the bacteria 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.680 that causes Legionnaire's disease. That changed after the two thousand 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.440 one anthrax attacks, when letters laced with deadly b acteria 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.480 were mailed to politicians and the offices of news outlets, 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.960 killing five people and infecting seventeen more. Experts at the 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:12.640 nonprofit Alfred pce Loan Foundation began contemplating what role buildings 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:17.240 might play in mitigating bio terrorism threats. Realizing we knew 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:21.600 almost nothing about which microbes exist indoors, the Foundation poured 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.880 tens of millions of dollars into research. Soon, scientists uncovered 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:31.479 rich ecologies of fast evolving indoor microbe populations. Crucially, most 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:36.120 had little overlap with outdoor populations, including salutary species that 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:40.200 humans co evolved with over millions of years. Now, with 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:44.279 a global pandemic raging, these researchers are suddenly in demand. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.680 Our calendar is fairly full, says Kevin van den Wimelenberg, 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.800 director of the Biology and the Built Environment Center at 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.040 the University of Oregon. He used to receive two or 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.120 three inquiries per week asking for advice on how to 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:00.920 improve the health of a building. Now he gets twenty 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.800 a day. It's everyone from hospitals to large commercial real 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.960 estate portfolios, to nursing homes in school districts, to personal 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.400 friends who run a barbershop and are trying to decide 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.280 whether or not they should blow out the hair of 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:17.920 their patrons. Of course, the most urgent microbe related question 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:20.960 is where to find stars Cove two and how to 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.760 kill it. Beyond that, there are also long term questions. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.560 How can we promote indoor microbe populations that don't make 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:33.200 us chronically ill or harbor deadly pathogens? Can we actually 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.680 cultivate beneficial microbes in our buildings the way a farmer 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:41.520 cultivates a field. Experts, including Van den Wimelenberg, are confident 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.240 all this is possible. I really believe our building operators 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.239 of the future and our designers will be thinking about 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:55.159 how to shape the microbiome, he says. The term microbiome 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:57.640 is most often used to refer to the population of 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.960 microbes that inhabit our body, many of which helped produce 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:06.080 vitamins hormones and other chemicals vital to our immune system, metabolism, mood, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:10.280 and much more. In the typical person, microbial cells are 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.400 as numerous as those containing human DNA and cumulatively way 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:19.000 about two pounds. In recent decades, our personal microbiomes have 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:23.240 been altered by factors such as poor dietary habits, arise 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:27.800 in caesarean section births, over prescription of antibiotics, over use 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:31.960 of disinfectants and other germ fighters, and dwindling contact with 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:37.280 beneficial microbes on animals and in nature. According to a study, 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.880 Americans microbiomes are about half as diverse as those of 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.400 the young know Mommy, a remote Amazonian tribe. Like our bodies, 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:50.960 the buildings we inhabit are also teeming with microbes. Inhale deeply, 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:54.640 writes Rob Dunn, a professor of applied ecology at North 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:59.680 Carolina State University, in his book Never Home Alone. With 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:02.800 each breath you bring oxygen deep into the alveola of 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:07.400 your lungs, along with hundreds of thousands of species. Sit down. 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.040 Each place you sit, you are surrounded by a floating, leaping, 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.720 crawling circus of thousands of species. Dune says, more species 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.360 of bacteria have been found in homes than there are 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:23.680 species of birds and mammals on Earth. In researchers found 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:28.360 that indoor air contains nearly equal concentrations of bacteria and viruses. 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.320 Almost all viruses are harmless, and some may be beneficial 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:36.800 over time. These many microbes have adapted to survive and 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.840 even thrive everywhere, from our pillow cases and toothbrushes to 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:45.400 the more extreme climates of our dishwashers, showerheads, ovens, and freezers. 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.680 Many are derived from humans or likely feed off human debris, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.600 like Pigpin from the comic strip Peanuts. Each of us 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.280 has a plume of microbes spewing off our body at 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.680 a rate of about thirty seven million bacteria and eight 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.360 billion fungal particles per hour. The difference is that our 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.679 plumes are invisible to the naked eye. Indoors, the impact 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.680 is measurable. One study notes that it takes less than 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.400 twenty four hours for a hotel guest to colonize a 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.560 room with their personal microbes, erasing all traces of previous 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.240 guests and making the space microbially identical to their home. 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.800 Considering our perpetual emanations, it's easy to envision how the 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:32.560 coronavirus might spread within a room. A single sneeze discharges 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:36.320 roughly thirty thousand microbe filled droplets, traveling it up to 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.840 two hundred miles per hour. A cough releases about three 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.200 thousand droplets, which reach speeds of fifty miles per hour. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.080 A simple exhale produces fifty to five thousand droplets. We 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.200 know that a person infected with influenza releases as many 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.040 as thirty three viral particles per minute just breathing, and 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:59.560 about two hundred million per sneeze. Meanwhile, exposure to just 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.960 a few hundred stars CoV two particles may be enough 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:08.360 to cause infection. Outdoors are invisible. Plumes almost always dispersed quickly, 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:10.679 which is a very good thing in the case of 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.320 COVID carriers. Any virus that is released into the air 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.040 is rapidly diluted, moved by wind currents, and spread out 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:22.560 across a seemingly infinite space, says Lindsay mar an expert 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.160 in infectious disease transmission and professor of civil and Environmental 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.760 engineering at Virginia Tech. It's almost like putting a drop 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.480 of dye into the ocean versus putting it into a 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.679 glass of water. Sunlight also inactivates viruses in as little 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.520 as five minutes eight minutes. In the case of stars 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.120 CoV two, a study from the Department of Homeland Security 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.960 found that the coronavirus can hang around indoors in the 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:50.959 dark for hours. Facing an invisible and potentially deadly virus. 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.240 The understandable impulse has been to whip out some clorox 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.400 and go to battle, but indiscriminate bleach bombing could backfire. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.040 For one thing, mr acted efforts maybe a colossal waste 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.480 of time and money. New York City, for example, announced 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.640 in the spring that for the first time, it was 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.120 closing the subway system during early morning hours to deep 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:15.640 clean every train. It's all theater, says Jack Gilbert, a 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.320 professor and microbiome researcher at the University of California at 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:23.040 San Diego. You bleach the subway, the bleach dries up 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.280 and becomes inactive. If just one person who has COVID 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.600 nineteen interacts with that surface, the four hours of cleaning 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:33.120 have no effect. And because we now know stars COVI 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.920 two is most often transmitted through the air, cleaning efforts 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.520 seem even more futile. A more serious risk is that 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.640 attempts to sterilize our surroundings can kill off bacteria critical 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:49.079 for human health, or, even worse, inadvertently promote the survival 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:54.160 and evolution of more dangerous bugs, including antibiotic resistant superbugs. 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.559 We should be worried, says Rob Knight, founding director of 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.360 the Center from Microbiome in a Vation and a professor 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:06.280 of pediatrics at UCSD. If we are over zealously stripping 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.360 off all the bacteria that would naturally be there, then 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.000 we may be creating homes for bacteria and maybe even 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:16.040 viruses that are harder to remove. No amount of chemicals 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.120 will get rid of everything, and what's left behind is 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:24.960 often undesirable. Microbiologists have swabbed the International Space Station to 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:29.000 find out what happens inside an enclosed, supposedly sterile chamber 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.600 in which every bit of food and equipment has been 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:36.240 disinfected with an especially designed NASA facility. As it turned out, 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.920 microbes were everywhere, almost all of them human derived. Among 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.880 the most common were bacteria associated with pecs, stinky feet, 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.079 and armpits, which is perhaps why the I S S 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:51.360 has been described as smelling like a mix of plastics, garbage, 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:55.600 and body odor. Here on Earth, proper hygiene is effective 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.760 in minimizing exposure to pathogens such as those that cause 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.120 food poisoning and strep throat, but we tend to go 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.680 nuclear using harsh chemicals when soap and water could do 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.240 the job. For years, anti microbials have been added to 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:15.440 everything wallpaint, kitchen sponges, underwear, lip gloss. Now we've become 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.880 more extreme in hopes of zapping stars Cove two straight 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.000 out of the air. Some building managers are installing so 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:27.000 called bipolar ionization units, even though they may not work 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.760 against COVID and sometimes generate harmful gases such as the 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:35.400 lung irritant ozone. As for the antimicrobial cleaning agents and 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:39.680 surface coatings being liberally applied throughout offices and other public spaces, 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:44.480 we may be introducing large quantities of poorly understood, potentially 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.520 poisonous chemicals into our everyday life, as well as speeding 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.520 the evolution of disastrous superbugs. The more we use the 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.840 same anti microbials in different contexts, the more opportunity these 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:01.240 microbes have to develop resistance, says Erica Hartman, an engineering 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:06.600 professor at Northwestern university who focuses on indoor microbiology and chemistry. 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.680 If they're developing resistance to the antimicrobial itself, that's not great, 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.280 because then we've lost an important product in our cleaning arsenal. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.920 But if they also develop resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.480 of which we have precious view, that's an even bigger concern, 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.360 and there's evidence that both of those things happen. Wiping 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.559 out good bacteria along with the bad has also been 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.520 linked to chronic health problems. One often cited series of 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:38.440 studies begun in examined the relationship between cleanliness and disease 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.959 in the Finnish Russian border region of Karelia, where people 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:47.000 share similar genetics. On the wealthier, cleaner, finished side, people 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.960 were as many as thirteen times more likely to suffer 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.840 from inflammatory disorders as on the Russian side, where the 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.600 majority live in rural homes, keep animals, and cultivate their 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.680 own gardens. Our pandemic era anti germ crusade may not 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.880 have a big impact on the already formed microbiomes of adults, 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.160 but infants and young children, who need exposure to a 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.560 wide variety of microbes to train their developing immune systems 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.880 could be more adversely affected. It's just speculation, but we 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:19.560 could see a blip where this generation of kids has 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.840 more immune related conditions. Knight says, especially in places where 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.480 people have had to stay quarantined indoors, where kids didn't 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:33.280 get to go outside as much. Leong of s O 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.920 M began thinking about the microbiology of buildings years before 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.120 the pandemic. It's not something he tends to mention to 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.520 prospective clients. If you tell a client, let's talk about microbes, 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.520 they'll say get out of here. Next, he says, we 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.880 have to address it carefully. Beyond using organic materials and 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:57.520 maximizing access to natural light and outdoor spaces, Leung says 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.880 lots can be done to make buildings healthier at the 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.800 microbial level. For safer air, he extols the use of 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.760 filters designed to eliminate sars Kovi two and other pathogens 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:12.840 and contaminants, but he cautions against bipolar ionization technology and 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:17.320 says air shouldn't be sterilized over long durations. Whenever possible, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.360 Leung suggests deploying ventilation systems that pump office is full 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:25.760 of microbially diverse outdoor air. Among his current projects is 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.280 the thirty one story we Bank Tower in Shunjun, which 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.640 upon completion in twenty twenty two, will draw air through 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:37.280 trees planted on balconies before it's funneled inside. Sometimes we 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.800 also open up buildings at night, Leung says, noting that 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:44.400 the outdoor air is first measured for pollutants. During the 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.320 day people want air conditioning, but when they're gone, you 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:51.840 can recharge the building with microbes from outside. Proper ventilation 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:56.680 is particularly important in energy efficient buildings, which, like spaceships, 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.480 are designed to be sealed off from the outside world. 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.600 In addition to delivering fresh oxygen and eliminating the brain 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.920 numbing build up of carbon dioxide, good airflow and filtration 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.800 reduce exposure to a long list of mostly unregulated and 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:18.040 unmonitored chemicals found indoors. These include known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors, 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:23.200 which reside in carpets, computers, free floating dust, office chairs, paint, 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:27.960 and more. Outdoor pollution also seeps inside buildings and gets trapped, 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:32.280 especially during hours when ventilation systems are turned off. All 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.920 this means indoor air is often far worse than outdoor air, 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.600 with levels of some contaminants rising to ten times higher 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:44.160 or more. For businesses, better air quality alone translates to 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.400 an estimated sixty five hundred to seventy five hundred dollars 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:51.640 of added annual productivity per employee, mainly a result of 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:55.760 improved wakefulness and acuity, say Joseph Allen and John Macomber, 0:16:56.160 --> 0:16:59.600 Harvard professors who in April published the book Healthy Buildings. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.080 By contrast, they note a study of more than three 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.720 thousand workers in forty buildings found that fifty seven percent 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.720 of all sick leaf was attributable to bad air. Disturbingly, 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.040 Allan and Macomber also write that up to ninety percent 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:18.199 of American schools don't meet the minimum ventilation requirements, and 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:22.280 that those standards are already far below optimal in London, 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.879 Los Angeles, Mumbai and other polluted cities. Outdoor air needs 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.440 to be heavily filtered before being pumped indoors, and most 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:34.960 beneficial outdoor microbes likely don't survive, but in cleaner and 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:40.760 greener areas, simply opening windows has proved effective. After taking antibiotics, 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.240 you're supposed to eat yogurt to replenish with probiotics, says 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.399 Mark Fretz, a colleague of Van den Weimelenberg at the 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.879 University of Oregon, where he's a research assistant professor at 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.680 the Institute for Health. In the Built Environment, for your buildings, 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.640 the yogurt is essentially opening your window. In twenty twelve, 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.640 researchers compare them acrobiomes of a hospital room in Portland, Oregon, 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.840 with operable windows with one in which windows were permanently sealed. 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.000 It was very difficult to find a hospital that even 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.879 had an operable window, Frets says. Opening the window, it 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.520 turned out, resulted in far more microbial diversity throughout the room, 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:22.800 including species found on plants and leaves. Notably, there was 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:27.760 also a significantly lower chance of encountering pathogens. Side note, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:32.359 Potted plants also seed indoor spaces with valuable natural microbes, 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.359 and they measurably improve human happiness, physical and mental health, 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:40.560 and even original thinking, but they barely improve air quality. 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:45.520 Another means of achieving healthier air is humidification, currently an 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.800 extreme rarity in North America. As any office worker who 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:52.760 struggled through a dry and overheated winter season knows, most 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.640 of our commercial buildings in the US are not humidified. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.880 Leung says, and that's why the pandemic could get even 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.520 worse this winter. Not only does sufficient moisture in the 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.679 air allow the human immune system to function at its best, 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.480 but it also gloms onto viral particles so they decay 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.840 and drop to the floor more quickly. According to some calculations, 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.080 viruses in dry air can survive six times as long 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.680 as those in buildings with the relative humidity of about 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.639 forty percent. Of course, building interventions alone can't eliminate the 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:28.119 risk of stars covey to contagion, so it's best to 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.880 keep social distancing and wearing masks. In the meantime, scientists 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:36.200 at universities and start ups are racing to develop microbial 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.040 censors for air filters, building services, waste water, and even 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.720 indoor air. We have tools to help us see the unseen, 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.600 Van der Weimelenburg says. For now, those detection tools are 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:51.280 in their infancy, relying on the arduous process of repeatedly 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:58.000 collecting samples and transporting them to labs for testing. Gilbert 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.560 has ambitious plans for microby interventions in buildings. Trained as 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.800 a microbial ecologist and with experience working on soils, plants, 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.240 and marine systems, He was initially skeptical when he learned 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.560 the Sloane Foundation was promoting something called the Microbiology of 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.000 the Built Environment. I thought it was a joke, Gilbert says, 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.399 I'll admit it. I thought there can't be much microbiology 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.400 in the built environment, so why would anyone be interested. 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.280 Then in the winter of twenty twelve, he got a 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.359 visit from Paula Olsouski, a program director for the Sloan Foundation. 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.120 At that point, he was a professor at the University 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.119 of Chicago, and when the meeting was over, a blizzard 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.040 had descended on the city. I offered to drive her 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.399 back to her hotel because I had a car that 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.680 could handle the snow, Gilbert recalls, but it was snowing 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.520 so heavily that the drive took two and a half hours, 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.000 and in that time she convinced me. Now at the 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:55.800 forefront of microbiome research human and environmental, Gilbert was even 0:20:55.840 --> 0:21:00.400 permitted to sample President Obama's microbiome in twenty sixteen. He's 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.960 not allowed to disclose the results. When the pandemic hit, 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.840 Gilbert quickly redirected much of his research funding towards studying 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.680 stars Cove two. He has one project together with Night's 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.160 lab to see how the virus travels through hospitals where 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.360 it most often takes up residence, and whether it piggybacks 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:22.760 on nefarious bacteria, as the influenza virus often does. He 0:21:22.880 --> 0:21:27.199 also has a second, more counterintuitive study under way in 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:32.120 an undisclosed California hospital. Gilbert is investigating whether adding harmless 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:37.400 basilis bacteria into medical facilities reduces the prevalence of pathogens, 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:41.560 including multi drug resistant bacteria and viruses. If you don't 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.840 have anything on a freshly disinfected surface and you cough 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.680 your virus laden bacteria onto the table, it will survive there, 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.800 Gilbert says, But if there's a high enough abundance of Bacillus, 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.240 then the bacillus will outcompete and exclude other pathogens that 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.520 land on the surface. Similar studies have been done in 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:04.040 the past with encouraging findings, but Gilbert's is more rigorous. 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.680 The idea of putting bacteria to work cleaning isn't as 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:10.920 far fetched as it might sound. In the nineteen forties, 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:15.240 a Danish company called Novozymes started selling environmental microbes for 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:19.720 decontaminating wastewater. In the nineteen eighties and nineties. It also 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:23.359 contracted with the US government on a large scale bioremediation 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.200 project to help clean up the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill. 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:31.919 About the same time, Novozymes sent researchers looking for bugs 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:36.080 that might help clean home septic tanks, restaurant grease traps, 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.840 pet stains, and much more. Among their best finds were 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.200 grease and odor cutting bacteria discovered in the outdoor grill 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:47.720 sites of Virginia parks and the kitchen of a Florida restaurant. Today, 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.960 Novozymes is worth about sixteen billion dollars, and its microbes 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:55.760 are key ingredients in dozens of home care brands. These 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:59.520 include the likes of Aunt Fanny's micro Cosmic Probiotic powered 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:04.720 multi surface cleanser and Counterculture Probiotic Cleaning Tonic we clean 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:07.960 the way Nature has been cleaning for four billion years 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:12.879 with probiotics, reads counter Cultures website. The idea is to 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:16.360 deploy an army of microbes that eat away at dirt, debris, 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:20.200 and organic matter, also degrading the stuff left in cracks 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:24.280 and crevices. Last year, even Wreckett benk Kisser introduced a 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:27.840 probiotic cleaner called vo which the company says will help 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:32.080 contribute to the balancing of the home microbiome. Going a 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:36.520 step further, scientists are studying whether salubrious environmental microbes can 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:39.840 be introduced into urban homes to reduce the prevalence of 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:45.199 inflammatory diseases. In Finland, one group seeded the doormats of 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:48.560 city dwellers with about thirty grams of forest soil so 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:53.320 residents could drag outdoor microbes inside. The six month experiment 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:56.320 showed the rugs did shift the indoor air to include 0:23:56.320 --> 0:23:59.879 more outdoor microbes. Next, the researchers want to run a 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.640 large scale study to see whether forest soil impacted rugs 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:06.760 can improve the immune systems of infants and young children. 0:24:07.520 --> 0:24:11.040 Another finished group is bypassing the rugs and simply smearing 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:13.840 infants with a soil preparation to find out if there 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:18.119 are health benefits. So far, no one knows exactly which 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:23.000 outdoor microbes are beneficial or how much exposure is best. Still, 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:26.280 a number of startups are marketing bacteria sprays for homes 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:31.440 and businesses. Belgium based take Air advertises an air enricher 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:36.159 that disperses soil and ocean derived microbes through existing ventilation 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:40.800 systems to create a natural and protective biosphere for your 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:45.199 building users. Clients include a Belgian chain of Gems and 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:49.400 a housing project in Antwerp. Another front runner, Better Air 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:54.200 in Israel sells the world's first organic air and surface probiotic, 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:59.640 a freestanding microbe mister that retails for four dollars refill 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:04.160 cart ridges are It's only a matter of time before 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:09.520 these technologies become better understood and more widespread. There's absolutely 0:25:09.600 --> 0:25:12.960 fascinating research to be done. Gilbert says, I want to 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:16.359 maybe engineer basilis so it has properties that can stimulate 0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:20.400 the immune systems of people in a room. Vann Wimelenberg 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:23.800 is also hopeful. There's no reason this stuff can't work. 0:25:23.960 --> 0:25:28.000 He says, we're already heavily manipulating the microbes in our buildings, 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:35.399 just not deliberately. On a Tuesday afternoon in June, Leung 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:38.320 takes my call while teaching his eighteen year old son 0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:42.680 to drive. Asked about the probiotic air enhancers, he laughs, 0:25:43.240 --> 0:25:45.840 it actually says a lot about human beings. He says. 0:25:46.240 --> 0:25:49.119 We've created buildings so sterile that now we have to 0:25:49.200 --> 0:25:52.560 buy nature and spray it back in. That's how silly 0:25:52.600 --> 0:25:55.760 we are. Perhaps the pandemic will serve as a wake 0:25:55.800 --> 0:25:58.880 up call. This is our chance to right our wrongs 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:02.879 of the past two years, he says, speaking of restoring 0:26:02.880 --> 0:26:07.320 our relationship with soils, plants, and animals. It won't be easy. 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:09.879 Over the next forty years, the total amount of indoor 0:26:09.920 --> 0:26:14.520 square footage will roughly double worldwide, reports science journalist Emily 0:26:14.520 --> 0:26:18.680 Anthus in her book The Great Indoors. Given the horrors 0:26:18.720 --> 0:26:22.280 of COVID, many businesses and building managers will also work 0:26:22.320 --> 0:26:26.960 their hardest to sanitize indoor environments like never before, perhaps 0:26:27.000 --> 0:26:32.080 causing unintended consequences. In the meantime, the climate crisis is 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:36.480