We have been saying since day one what the purposefully inept CDC now pretends is "new." Engineering controls are essential, and Industrial Hygienists and OEHS Professionals look to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), which has been around since the 1970s.
OSHA utilizes the General Duty Clause to enforce proper indoor air quality. Different standards are in place to address the use of HVACs as engineering controls, including Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) and exposure limits.
The CDC now recognizes the importance of HVAC engineering controls for indoor air quality, a slap in the face to non-government Industrial Hygienists working on this issue for years. We should have been recognized as the exposure control experts required to implement 90% risk reductions to hazards by following the hierarchy of controls, not vehemently pushing a less than 1% risk reduction in masking and the unsafe practice of respirators on children and the public.
The past three years were never about safety and health, evidenced by weaponizing OSHA and professional organizations to abandon their standards, protocols, and guidance. They should have also promoted toilet seat covers on public toilets and removed the hand dryers. They could have followed all of the science around indoor air quality. Those who followed our work understand the significance of putting into practice proper controls to protect the health and safety of workers and the public.
We collectively authored a 27-page letter with our colleagues about this issue. The CDC's response was nothing but gaslighting without addressing our professional concerns and remedies.
The CDC provided a non-responsive and convoluted answer, dodging our primary concerns. Notably, they avoided explaining why they recommended N95 respirators for children when manufacturers warned against them. No respirator is approved by NIOSH or any manufacturers for pediatric use.
The CDC's messaging consistently emphasizes that masks are effective if used correctly, but decades of scientific studies do not support this. Furthermore, they conflate the terms "masks" and "respirators (N95s)." It appears that the CDC lacks the expertise of industrial hygienists.
Since at least 1950, Engineering Controls (such as dilution ventilation, filtration, and destruction technologies) have remained the primary solution to exposure controls of airborne infectious diseases.