Dear Editor,

People may wonder how engineers can come to a conclusion and make reasonable recommendations without all of the details. A case in point would be the suggestions I made with respect to Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH).

Fumes were reported to be making staff and patients ill at the CRH. The central AC system was pointed out as the culprit, having been restarted a few years ago. This was not sufficient to make any comment and the exact identification of the fumes was not available.

As well, a normal central AC for such a facility should be expected to introduce copious amounts of fresh air on a continuing basis and would purge harmful fumes unless, somehow, they were being added at such a rate as to overpower the ability of the central AC to remove them. This was baffling.

It was not until the use of mini splits (presumably to supplement the central AC), which only cool, filter and recirculate air, was also reported in the Observer that the causation became clear. Insufficient fresh air was being added to purge the fumes, possibly due to degradation of the central AC, leading to the use of mini splits.

Finally, this led to the build-up of fumes to a level incompatible with human health. I agree that the complete replacement of the old central AC is required, but the complete shutdown of the affected areas, which seem to be essential to the CRH’s functioning while waiting to do the replacement, is unnecessary, especially when these areas can be sealed off from the central AC and temporarily run on mini splits with appropriate filtration and fresh air introduction.

Howard Chin

hmc14 cwjamaica.com