Table 5.
Analysis of the IAQ improvement techniques.
| Applications | Characteristics | Advantages | Disadvantages | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Face masks | Personal protective equipment helps prevent transmission from the infected droplets. | Cost-friendly, seals face properly, filter out the microparticles effectively. | Causes irritation in the eyes, hampers volume of speech, prolonged usage can cause hypercapnia and hypoxia in sensitive groups. | (Abboah-Offei et al., 2021; Rader et al., 2021; Gondim, 2021; Li et al., 2020; Ahmad et al., 2020; Scheid et al., 2020) |
| Lockdown | A particular country or a city undergoes shutdown and stays at home. | Efficient reduction in infection rates; improves air quality as pollutants get diluted and reduced. | Travel issues and can cause an economic recession if implemented for a long duration. | (Latif et al., 2021; Kumari & Toshniwal, 2020; Mahato et al., 2020) |
| Social distancing | Maintaining a physical distance of 1–3 m from other individuals. | Helps in delaying the peak of disease, reduces the required ventilation rate in confined space, better compared to facemasks for sensitive groups in indoor spaces. | Adversely affects mental health, conflicts with ethical and religious sentiments, monitoring violates an individual’s privacy. | (Sun & Zhai, 2020; Qureshi et al., 2020; Guo, Qin et al., 2021; Cato et al., 2020; Marroquín et al., 2020) |
| Ventilation | Inside-outside air exchange for diluting contaminants in confined spaces. | Provide required ventilation rate, thermal comfort, and maintains the health of occupants. | Extracting 100% fresh consumes more energy, lacks self-disinfecting capability |
(Ge et al., 2020; Megahed & Ghoneim, 2020b; Morawska et al., 2020; Schoen, 2020) |
| Air purifiers | Filters the contaminants from indoor spaces. | Reduces the risk of household contagion, some can filter PM and others can kill the pathogens. | High installation cost, high energy consumption, only cleans the air that passes through it. | (Chang et al., 1985; Chen et al., 2010; Dey et al., 2017; Grabarczyk, 2001; Mondal & Saha, 2019; Roy et al., 2018; Shiue et al., 2011; Yang, 2012) |