Theaters thought to pose less covid risk than thought

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Infectious disease expert offers tips to stay safer at the movies

(SACRAMENTO) —

Here is some pleasant news amid the warnings and cautions about life during the COVID-19 pandemic: Going to a movie may be less risky than you think.

If theaters space out patrons, and people keep their masks on, a trip to the movies may not be particularly risky.

“It sounds like trouble – many people confined indoors, in one room, for a prolonged period,” said Natascha Tuznik, a UC Davis Health associate professor of infectious disease. “But now that masks are required – and if the theater does everything right – a theater should pose less risk of person-to-person transmission than many other places people are going now.”

Before you rush to the theater, Tuznik still urges caution.

“Remember, ‘less risk’ doesn’t mean ‘no risk,’” she said. “But it is less risky than places like gyms, where people are breathing heavily and sweating, or bars where people can get too close or talk loudly and expel more of the virus, even with masking requirements.”

Sitting in a theater should be safer, she said, because:

• People are not talking to each other during a movie – we hope.
• Six-foot social distancing can be practiced if the theater limits guests, blocks off every other seat, and spaces people in a checkerboard configuration so no one is breathing directly at someone else.
• People are facing the same direction, which is known to reduce transmission risks.

Manage your risk at the movies


Tuznik has more advice to help reduce your risk at the movies. It starts with learning the policies of the theater. Are they limiting capacity to a maximum of 50%? Are they staggering show times to allow more time to clean between screenings and to reduce the size of the crowds in the lobbies?

“But you may have to go there to find out,” she said. “Calling a movie theater and getting a real person is not the easiest thing.”

She also suggests we:

• Avoid eating and drinking during the movie, which would require frequent mask removal. “I know popcorn is part of the fun of going to the movies, but it adds to your risk,” she said.
• Don’t sit near others who are eating or drinking.
• Especially avoid self-serve concession stands.
• Bring your own wipes or cleaner to wipe down the armrests – hand sanitizer on a paper towel is one way to do it.
• If possible, don’t use the restrooms. If you must, don’t go in if they are crowded.

There are a few added protections that some theater companies are considering, including plastic barriers between seats and disposable seat covers.

“It’s definitely worth checking on those, if you can,” Tuznik said. “Like everything else right now, going to the movies will be harder, especially if you’re cautious. But the extra effort is worth it.”

California’s requirement that people wear masks in all indoor public places decreases the risk, but it’s unclear how, or if, this will be enforced inside the theater during the showing.

“I know this isn’t fun,” Tuznik said, “but just like at so many other places right now, be prepared to leave. Missing the end of a movie is bad. Getting sick is worse.”

She had one other tip. Consider a drive-in theater. “Bring your own soda and popcorn and relax,” she said. “You also don’t have to worry about another patron taking phone calls.”

https://health.ucdavis.edu/health-ne...expert/2020/06

My question is.... How many plex's are you familiar with that recirculate air? Most I have been involved with do to cut hvac costs down.

Also, has anyone you know of installed UV light treatment in their air handlers? I know of just one location in Maryland that did. I would think the latter would be a great thing to advertise to make customers feel safe enough to come to your theater.

[Jim Cassedy]

. . And just about 48hrs ago, I heard a couple of 'experts' on a radio newscast who were
saying that a movie theater (or any type of theater for that matter) was one of the WORST
places to go. Going to a movie theater was given a risk factor of "8" (out of 9) on a chart
put out by the Texas Medical Association last month. I'm not taking a position, since I don't
know any more than anyone else. I'm just saying that I'm getting the feeling that nobody
really knows. It's like those studies about whether drinking coffee is good for you or not.
Geez, for the last 20 or more years I think I can recall seeing some 'expert' or "study" saying
coffee isn't good for you, , and than a few months later, another expert or study says it's perfectly
OK It's almost like the "which way do you hang the toilet paper roll" question, which has defied
a definite answer for over a century.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

AMC is apparently installing some type of special filters at all their locations. Trying to find out about them, otherwise I see this as the same as reopening schools, which so far have not gone too well.

[Steve Guttag]

With coffee...you are going to have a pretty hefty lobby going against you if you say ill about it. I'm amazed at when people bring in outside drinks into a theatre and are stopped that they get very indignant and proclaim "it's only coffee," like it is some right or something.

Jim, if you look at that list, somehow, flying in an airplane is listed as safer than a cinema despite a plan using a similar, if not drastically more confined HVAC system with much denser seating. There is a mixture of intuition and pain reduction in that chart (don't make travel impossible but theatres and sports can be replicated at home...so let them be "more dangerous"). They also have barber shops on the risky side...which is a crock...going to my barber now has a more sterile smell than any doctor/dentist office and the spacing between customers is pretty huge (and is now by appointment to ensure no group of people are near each other).

What cinemas are going to do, particularly with so little new content is run the same feature on several screens to ensure they don't have many people in each auditorium. So you could get 200 people in a showing but it will be spread over say 4 theatres.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

These are the filters AMC is installing.

MERV-13-rated filters may reduce indoor spread of the coronavirus, but they are in short supply. ... MERV-8 filters are currently in wide general use but are not considered effective in removing the coronavirus from filtered air.Jul 21, 2020

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

flying in an airplane is listed as safer than a cinema

Because modern airplanes use outside air that is pressurized and heated by the engines it is not recirculated any longer. The 787 even keeps the air pressurized very close to the normal 16.8 psi we are at here on the ground. Most others pressurize to about half that. Older 707,737. DC-8, DC-9 all recirculated the air, which was just filtered

[Steve Guttag]

I use MERV-12 filters at home (aka Filtrete 1500) by going up in higher filtration until they were getting reasonably dirty after 3-months. I'm sure I could go up another level. I can confirm that my Filtrete 1500s have experienced a delay in shipping this past quarter...I got them but they were about 4-weeks delayed. I always order right when I change a set so the delay wasn't significant to me but yes, getting one's hands on higher filtration level filters is getting harder.

Another thing about going from a MERV-8 to a MERV-13 filter (or any higher MERV rating) is that you also better plan on changing them in a proportionately higher rate. As I said, I get about 3-months at home where the biggest pollution are dust and dogs. In a commercial environment, including cinemas where you have, among other things, popcorn soot (which should be vented directly outside via hood...but then the theatre would lose some of that popcorn smell) and a MUCH higher inherent dust/dirt level so they better plan on changing those filters, at least, 50% more often. If a theatre was getting 3-months on a filter before, it will likely be closer to 1-month now.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I had quite a few theaters modify to exhaust poppers directly outside when we started doind digital installas back about 2005. I had one CP-2000 at the top of the stairs in a 12 plex literally dripping with oil It was a day and a half job to dismantle and clean it all out. Even before I left that site the HVAC crew was there modifying the exhaust so it went outside. Several other locations had to do the same thing in later years for the very same reason.

[Kenneth Wuepper]

Our old concession arrangement had the popper vent above it. The vent was connected through a cage fan to an outside grate in the side wall. The side of the building had to be cleaned frequently as the oil condensate would drip down the bricks. Our current popper has an internal filter system and there is no problem from oil fumes escaping through the concession vents.

[Mike Blakesley]

We currently have a spike going on in our county. We went from zero active cases a few weeks ago to 100 today. We have two population centers, Forsyth and Colstrip, which each have less than 2500 people in them. The south part of the county contains the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation (about 50 miles from here), and the reservation spills over into neighboring Big Horn County, which also contains the Crow Reservation. Big Horn county has been a hot spot for about 3 months, so there is speculation that people traveling back and forth between the two reservations might have inspired the spike here. Our county is over 5,000 square miles (over twice the size of the state of Delaware) and the health department doesn't break it down any further than by county, so there's no telling where the cases are. I only know of three people in Forsyth that actually have Covid - two of them being a married couple.

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm hoping our theaters here in Lawton will be able to re-open. But I'm not so sure now. Today Comanche County reported its biggest one-day increase in confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases, 64. Considering the county has usually added daily new case numbers in the single digits this jump of 64 is a comparatively big spike. We went from having around 70 known active cases yesterday to over 120 now. This bump in cases likely has two culprits. Schools have been re-opening. We also had a major PRCA pro rodeo in town 2 weeks ago. Hundreds of people were packed in the stands, no masks, no social distancing. The only upshot was the event was held outdoors. If it weren't for the bike rally in Sturgis, SD the rodeo here might have been all over the news.

I really want to see "Tenet" on a big screen. I'm really disappointed no theaters in Texas, Oklahoma or Colorado will have any 70mm prints. So regular d-cinema will just have to do. I'm going to be very careful about picking when and where to see it.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

An interesting blurb from Grainger on air filters and why higher MERV rated filters may not be right for your system.


https://www.grainger.com/know-how/eq...Xh1vQCHhzUXjgg


As air moves through a building’s HVAC system, air filters trap and collect large and small particles such as dust, allergens and microorganisms. According to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), this filtration helps provide healthier indoor air quality. A filter's MERV number indicates how it's rated to remove these particles. But what is MERV rating, exactly?
An air filter’s minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) rating measures how effectively the filter stops dust and other contaminants from passing through the filter and into the air stream. Filters with higher MERV ratings trap small particles more effectively than filters with lower MERV ratings.
In general, filters with a rating of MERV 16 or below are considered to be HVAC-system-grade filters for residential, commercial and general hospital use. MERV 17 through MERV 20 filters are typically used in surgical operating rooms, clean rooms and other contexts that require absolute cleanliness.
MERV Filter Ratings and Efficiency

When selecting the right filter for your application, higher is not always better. Using an air filter with a MERV rating higher than what your furnace or air conditioner manufacturer recommends can actually impair its performance.
The smaller pores in more highly rated air filters create resistance to air flow, and if the filter is used in an HVAC system that is not designed to handle this resistance, it can lower the system's efficiency, decrease indoor air quality, and put strain on the system's fan.
MERV Filter Ratings and Air Quality

A position paper published by ASHRAE looked at the claim that particle filtration has health benefits. According to this paper, there's a well established connection between higher concentrations of particles in outdoor air and poor health outcomes, so it would make sense that filtering these particles out of indoor air could lead to better health outcomes.
The ASHRAE paper reviewed studies suggesting that:

• Particle filtration can be "modestly effective" against allergy and asthma symptoms.
• Particle filtration can lower the concentration of infectious airborne particles that spread many communicable illnesses, which is why some models suggest that it can "substantially decrease the portion of disease transmission caused by these small particles."
• The health benefits of particle filtration are proportional to "the reduction in total exposure to particles less than 2.5 µm in diameter."

Pre-Filters vs. Final Filters

Air filters can be used as final filters or pre-filters. When used as final filters, they are the primary filters for an HVAC system. Final filters may be used alone in a single-filter system, or they may be used in combination with one or more pre-filters. When used in a multi-filter system, the pre-filters trap the dirt and large particles before the air reaches the final filters downstream, which then remove the smaller particles. This multi-filter system extends the life of the more expensive final filters, leading to overall cost savings.
Additional Reading
“Fibrous Filter Media,” Philip J. Brown and Christopher L. Cox, eds. Woodhead Publishing, 2017.






Frequently Asked Questions

What MERV filter is recommended for preventing the transmission of airborne illnesses such as COVID-19?
A: Although ASHRAE does not recommend a specific MERV filter rating for preventing COVID-19 transmission, the organization suggests that upgrading systems in non-healthcare facilities to MERV-13 or the highest achievable level can be a worthwhile step in emergency response plans. Learn more about these recommendations here.

Q: Can HVAC operations strategies help prevent the spread of COVID-19?
A: There is evidence that HVAC operations may help decrease people's exposure to airborne pathogens that spread COVID-19 and other illnesses. Building technology group ASHRAE has compiled recommendations for filtration, humidity set points, automation and more.




The information contained in this article is intended for general information purposes only and is based on information available as of the initial date of publication. No representation is made that the information or references are complete or remain current. This article is not a substitute for review of current applicable government regulations, industry standards, or other standards specific to your business and/or activities and should not be construed as legal advice or opinion. Readers with specific questions should refer to the applicable standards or consult with an attorney.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Could not fit this chart into the above post because it took it over the limit on words.


Use the MERV rating chart below to understand which filters are best for which applications.
MERV Rating Chart

	APPLICATION	CONTROLS THESE CONTAMINANTS	PARTICLE SIZE
MERV 1 MERV 2 MERV 3 MERV 4	· Pre-Filter In Commercial Building · Residential Furnaces · Window Air-Conditioning Units	· Pollen · Dust mites · Sanding dust · Textile/carpet fibers	Filters down to 10.0 micron particle size
MERV 5 MERV 6 MERV 7 MERV 8	· Pre-filters or Final Filters · Commercial Buildings · Better Residential Buildings · Industrial Workplaces · Paint Booth Inlets	· Pollen · Dust mites · Sanding dust · Textile/carpet fibers · Mold/spores · Dust lint · Cement dust	Filters down to 3.0–10.0 micron particle size
MERV 9 MERV 10 MERV 11 MERV 12	· Pre-Filters or Final Filters · Hospital Laboratories · Better Commercial Buildings · Superior Residential Buildings	· Pollen · Dust mites · Sanding dust · Textile/carpet fibers · Mold/spores · Dust lint · Cement dust · Legionella · Lead dust · Humidifier dust · Coal dust · Nebulizer dust	Filters down to 1.0–3.0 micron particle size
MERV 13 MERV 14 MERV 15 MERV 16	· Final Filters · General Surgery · Superior Commercial Buildings · Hospital Inpatient Care · Smoking Lounges	· Pollen · Dust mites · Sanding dust · Textile/carpet fibers · Mold/spores · Dust lint · Cement dust · Legionella · Lead dust · Humidifier dust · Coal dust · Nebulizer dust · Bacteria · Tobacco smoke · Auto fumes · Sneeze nuclei · Insecticide dust · Copier toner · Pet dander · Face powder	Filters down to 0.3–1.0 micron particle size
MERV 17 MERV 18 MERV 19 MERV 20	· Final Filter · Clean Rooms · Radioactive Materials · Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facilities · Carcinogenic Materials · Orthopedic Surgery Room	· Pollen · Dust mites · Sanding dust · Textile/carpet fibers · Mold/spores · Dust lint · Cement dust · Legionella · Lead dust · Humidifier dust · Coal dust · Nebulizer dust · Bacteria · Tobacco smoke · Auto fumes · Sneeze nuclei · Insecticide dust · Copier toner · Pet dander · Face powder · Virus carriers · Carbon dust · Sea salt · Combustion smoke · Radon progeny · Odor · Microscopic allergens

[Marcel Birgelen]

Like the article indicated, many HVAC systems aren't designed to cope with the fine-meshed filters required to effectively filter the virus particles out. If you install such a filter anyways, the result can be a less-than-optimum airflow.

In HVAC systems that allow you to adjust the amount of fresh air being taken versus the amount of air being recirculated, the general recommendation is to increase the amount of fresh air, but this obviously has almost always a negative impact on the efficiency of the system.

As for the article itself... Different people, different opinions. I really want this industry to survive, obviously, but we're not getting anywhere by just downplaying potential risks. Indoor spaces, where many people meet, have been proven to be problematic. Good ventilation will most likely reduce the risk, but if done the wrong way, it will only help to increase the risk.

But the main problem is, many people are outright (and maybe to some extend rightfully) scared to go to the movies and phrases like "Manage your risk at the movies" don't inspire much confidence with those who are already scared. Also, what I hear from most people around me, is that they're simply not willing to pay normal prices for a ticket, when they're being told to wear a mask all the time, might end up in a sub-optimal seating position and are being told to refrain from eating and drinking as much as possible, to reduce risks...

Still, I hope to be able to catch a halfway decent screening of Tenet. I even have some limited hope of a 70mm version appearing somewhere here in Europe...

[Steve Guttag]

It is tough to find a recommended MERV spec on an HVAC...I've been minimum of 8 but rarely have I found a not-to-exceed. I would presume the HVAC specialist would do a static pressure test to ensure that the filter isn't putting too much of a restriction. I may experiment with a Filtrete1900 (MERV-13) at home and see just how more impacted it gets. I can safely say that a MERV-12, while clearly dirty after 3-months is not impacted to the point that one notices an air flow restriction nor a change in comfort upon the filter change.

I suspect, in a theatre or most commercial cinemas, a MERV-12 or above is going to fill up VERY fast and you might get lucky to get a month out of them if you are presently using MERV-8 with a 3-month change cycle. I would definitely check them regularly and also check with your HVAC contractor before jacking up the filter rating.