There’s a nip in the air, or at least the hint of a nip in the sweltering late-summer humidity.
Autumn is coming, dressed in its glorious scarlet and orange bloom, and with it the ominous spectre of the dreaded fourth wave.
When it comes to dealing with the latest COVID-19 variant, scientists at Swansea University in Wales have promising news for drivers. They have discovered that simply opening your car windows for 10 seconds can almost halt the buildup of coronavirus in the vehicle’s interior. In fact, “regularly opening car windows can cut COVID-19 particles by 97 per cent.”
That’s right, the same methodology we employ for bad odours can work to fight the spread of COVID-19. Roll down your windows. The study was led by Swansea University’s Professor Chenfeng Li. His team examined the aerosol effects of coronavirus spread. Says Professor Li, “When a COVID-19 patient coughs, saliva containing the virus is expelled in the form of droplets. Large-size droplets fall quickly to the ground, while small-size droplets evaporate quickly.” The researchers focused on the small-size droplets, which disappear into the air in seconds, but release the virus after evaporation. It can then survive for up to an hour and remain infectious.
Professor Li and his team created simulations that demonstrated the effects of a driver coughing in a moving car at various speeds. The small saliva droplets disperse in varying formations depending on which windows are open. The variance in air pressure between the inside and outside of an automobile causes a “through-draught to suck out the virus.” As a result, it is most effective to open all four of a vehicle’s windows when travelling below 50 kph. At higher speeds, it’s best to have two windows open, one in the front and one on the opposite site in the back.
“The diagonal flow from the driver side window to the rear passenger side window is the most effective option for getting the virus out of the car when driving above 30 mph,” according to Professor Li. “This is because a sustained and dominant air flow from the front to the rear is formed when two diagonally opposite windows are open and the other two are closed. At higher driving speed, this strong diagonal air flow is more effective to discharge the virus particles out of the car than the turbulent air flow formed by opening all four windows.”
One of the study’s most surprising discoveries is evidence that sitting in the front of a vehicle is safer than sitting at the back, “due to the fact that the in-car air flow predominantly moves from the front to the rear, trapping some of the virus particles in the rear zone.”
Masks are also key in fighting vehicular spread. Wearing a face covering reduces the emission of the virus by 90 per cent, and the intake of the virus by passengers was reduced by 70 per cent.
So, while it won’t make up for the suffering which we are told lies on the horizon, at least we can make our cars a little safer. Just remember the golden rule: Masks on. Windows down.
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Andrew Clark