Rapid Indoor Air Quality Monitoring at Large Scale Events

How the 2021 environmental study of the UK government’s Events Research Programme helped UK society reopen following a year of lockdowns
In early 2020, in the face of the unprecedented public health challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government convened the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), to provide evidence-based advice on the emergency response. As several “super-spreading” events that occurred around the world in indoor settings revealed the role of airborne transmission of the disease, public health advice focused on recommending severe limitations on social or professional gatherings indoors, in buildings and on public transport. In this context, mass gathering events, such as live music, sports, theatre performances business networking events and weddings were prohibited in the UK for over a year. A number of research consortia were quickly established to carry out basic and applied research on indoor transmission, to understand how indoor environments could be occupied safely. The Events Research Programme (ERP) was the largest multi-disciplinary research program of this nature, involving public health, behavioural and environmental studies. It was established by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) to assess risk factors for COVID-19 transmission at mass gathering events and the feasibility of public health risk reduction measures.
This talk will describe the “Environmental Study” of the ERP, a rapid evaluation of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and airborne transmission risk conducted at ten large venues around the UK during live events between April and July 2021. The study, which developed a significant evidence base on environmental risk factors at events, was designed to respond to the policy related questions, and to develop high level guidance for event operators and venue managers on environmental standards and safety at events.
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