Respirators help reduce the spread of airborne infections
See how masks reduce respiratory particles released into shared air, helping limit airborne transmission and protect both the wearer and people nearby.
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Table of Contents
🧑⚕️ Why Indoor Air Quality Matters
| 🧑⚕️ Staff Safety | Healthcare workers face repeated exposure to airborne infection risks in poorly ventilated environments. |
| 🛏️ Patient Safety | Poor indoor air increases the risk of healthcare-acquired infections for vulnerable patients. |
| 📉 Workforce Impact | Preventable infections lead to sickness absence, Long Covid, and loss of experienced staff. |
| ⚖️ Employer Responsibility | Safe air is a workplace safety requirement — not an optional extra. |
The SHH-UK position statement on why indoor air quality in healthcare settings matters can be accessed by clicking here.
🌬️ What We Know
| 🌬️ Airborne Transmission | Respiratory infections such as Covid-19 spread through the air, not just droplets or surfaces. |
| 📟 CO₂ Monitoring | CO₂ levels provide a simple, real-time way to identify poorly ventilated spaces. |
| 🧰 Air Cleaning | HEPA filtration and ventilation reduce airborne pathogens and lower infection risk. |
| 😷 Respiratory Protection | Appropriate masks and respirators help protect staff from airborne exposure. |
Read the SHH-UK guide to using Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) monitors by clicking here.
If you’d like to borrow one of SHH-UK’s CO2 monitors please click here for more information. If you have any questions please email info@shh-uk.org and one of the SHH-UK team will get back to you.
👁️ Making the Invisible Visible
Improving indoor air quality starts with measurement, visibility, and consistent action.
| 📟 Monitor | Measure indoor air quality routinely to identify risk. |
| 👀 Make It Visible | Display air quality clearly so staff and patients understand their environment. |
| 🛠️ Act | Improve ventilation and use filtration where air quality is poor. |
| 🔁 Review | Build indoor air quality (IAQ) into routine safety checks and continuous improvement. |
🏥 What Good Looks Like
What good looks like is simple: healthcare spaces designed, monitored, and managed to keep the air safe.
| 🌬️ Better Ventilation | Healthcare spaces should be designed and managed to reduce airborne risk. |
| 📊 Routine Monitoring | Air quality should be measured regularly, not only when problems arise. |
| 🧼 Cleaner Air | Use ventilation and filtration to remove airborne pathogens. |
| 📘 Updated Guidance | Policies must reflect the reality of airborne transmission. |
Read the SHH-UK position statement on the urgent changes needed to infection prevention and control policies by clicking here.
📢 Safe Air 4 All Campaign
Campaign Vision: An English healthcare system where airborne infection risks are actively controlled and reduced through evidence-based measures – meaning that every hospital, clinic, GP surgery, and community health setting provides Clean Air As Standard
Campaign objectives
| 📢 Raise Awareness | Help people understand that infection risk is airborne. |
| 🏥 Change Practice | Embed indoor air quality into everyday healthcare safety. |
📊 Collect Real-World Data | Gather evidence from healthcare settings via freedom of information requests to make indoor air quality visible and drive meaningful change. |
| 📄 Improve Policy | Advocate for evidence-based infection control guidance. |
| 🤝 Support Action | Equip people with tools to challenge unsafe environments |
A brief summary of the evidence behind our campaign can be accessed by clicking here.
As part of our #SafeAir4All campaign, SHH-UK is launching a Freedom of Information (FOI) project to better understand how English NHS organisations are addressing indoor air quality and airborne infection prevention in practice. Find out more about our FOI project by clicking here.
Find out how you can support our #SafeAir4All campaign by clicking here.
If you haven’t done so already remember to read our two campaign position statements:
Alex Wilson says:
Excellent Work!
Kath says:
Good work! As a patient a few months ago I tested the air quality in the Bristol Nuffield Hospital underground operating rooms and it was well in the safe zone.
Juliet says:
Thank you for this. It’s incredible that we even need to campaign for proper infection control based on science.
Hilda Palmer says:
Good work!