An Indoor Clean Air Act? with Linsey Marr

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

Msnbc, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Government, Politics, Chris Hayes, Why Is This Happening?, Withpod, Versant, Ms Now, News, Society & Culture, Versant Media

4.6 • 9.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sweeping public health acts for everything from clean water to the control of cholera have revolutionized modern life as we know it. The Clean Air Act, which sets standards for outdoor air, has been around for decades. But as we spend more time inside amid the pandemic, scientists are now recognizing the need for a new form of quality control: regulating indoor air. How do we design and reconfigure spaces to have cleaner air capable of combating airborne viruses? This week, Chris talks with a leading expert on the topic. Dr. Linsey Marr is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and has spent over a decade researching the transmission of airborne viruses. She joins to discuss the science behind how COVID is transmitted within structures, the short- and long-term effects of regulated indoor air and why an Indoor Clean Air Act could be transformative in homes, schools and businesses. Sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts to listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads. You'll also get exclusive bonus content from this and other shows. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We have outdoor air quality standards in many countries worldwide,
0:04.3	which has been useful for improving our outdoor air quality,
0:08.7	but we spend on average 90% of our time indoors.
0:12.2	So if we're worried about health,
0:13.8	we should be thinking more about the indoor air.
0:15.8	It's not just for the respiratory virus pandemic.
0:19.0	Hello, and welcome to Why is this happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.
0:31.0	So I think everybody knows that there was a time in countries like the US or UK,
0:37.3	particularly where waterborne illness was common.
0:40.2	There's very famously a cholera outbreak in London,
0:43.6	which is the subject of a phenomenal book by Stephen Johnson called Ghost Map,
0:47.8	in which people started getting cholera and a bunch of infectious disease experts
0:54.2	figured out using this map that this was because it was from a contaminated well.
0:59.1	And if you've traveled across the world,
1:02.1	one of the key indicators often of development,
1:04.9	the development level of a country,
1:06.9	is the cleanliness of its water supply, right?
1:08.8	Can you drink the water?
1:10.3	It's even like a cliche, don't drink the water.
1:12.2	People would say that about Mexico 20 years ago.
1:15.8	By the way, Mexico City has like perfectly good water now.
1:18.2	I happen to know this because I have a friend who's like an anthropologist who literally
	...

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