I am immunocompromised. Even if I wasn’t, the research on the long-term effects of COVID and the first hand experiences of those with long COVID would be enough to convince me to continue masking indoors and taking other precautions. Yet libraries and other public spaces have abandoned their masking requirements and their plans to improve ventilation to prevent the spread of airborne diseases. Walking through the largest public library in my city over the weekend, it was full of excited visitors and friendly staff, and I was the only one wearing a mask.
Curb cuts, the ramps that make it easier to roll across a crosswalk and back onto the sidewalk, have been around since at least the 1930s. Local efforts highlighted their importance for folks who roll rather than walk, and federal legislation in many Western countries now mandates them within their accessibility legal infrastructure. While originally intended for wheelchair users, the curb cut effect has been repeatedly shown to demonstrate many other groups, such as parents pushing strollers or travellers pulling suitcases. Rather than an accessibility feature designed specifically for wheelchair users, they are now considered a ubiquitous obvious expected amenity in any space that uses curbs to separate footpaths from roadways.
As the climate crisis continues to escalate, the prevalence of wildfires around the world has been drastically increasing. Right now in Canada there are 899 officially recognized fires, with 49 of those starting in the last two days. There are 198 air quality warnings issued by the Canadian weather service, indicating health risks to everyone, healthy or otherwise. Wildfire smoke contains a variety of pollutants, and one of the most damaging of those is combustion particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter. The air filters that handle this size of contaminant, like MERV12 and N95, happen to be the same filters needed to address airborne illnesses like COVID.
As I see the resurgence around me of mask blocs and Corsi-Rosenthal filters to deal with wildfire smoke at the individual and household level, I can’t help but wonder how much safer our communities would be during these climate disasters if the filtering and ventilation options designed for COVID half a decade ago had been adopted as standards the way that curb cuts were, and how much more accessible public spaces would be to immunocompromised people like me. Whether it’s COVID, wildfire smoke, or the common cold, these measures which were designed to address a specific concern could have significant health benefits for everyone. I hope that libraries will lead the way in their universal adoption of these measures.