By Tina Alvey
LEWISBURG — Cold and flu season may be a little easier to bear for students and staff at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, thanks to improvements in indoor air quality in buildings across the campus.
“There’s been an increase in recent years in sinus infections and allergies due to the construction of airtight buildings,” Chris Aliff of American Filter Services said. “The stale air contributes to many kinds of health problems.”
Aliff’s company, based in Summersville, has been working the past two years to upgrade WVSOM’s air filtration system, replacing fiberglass and heavy metal filters with plastic and even recyclable products. As a result, leaks have been reduced and energy costs contained.
While some of the newer generation filters are more expensive, they are also more efficient, resulting in savings in both energy costs and consumption, Aliff pointed out.
“We also came up with a new schedule for changing filters,” he said, noting filters are changed as their efficacy expires, rather than on an arbitrary work schedule.
“The number of filters changed in a given month ranges from 300 to 400, and even up to 700,” he added.
WVSOM staffers Kevin Williams, a trades specialist, and Gary Cochran, manager of institutional facilities, were key in implementing the new program, Aliff said.
As a result of Aliff’s efforts, coordinated through Larry Ware, the school’s vice president of finance and facilities, WVSOM was selected by the National Air Filtration Association to receive a 2009 Clean Air Award.
Presenting the award to WVSOM President Richard Rafes Wednesday morning, Aliff noted the honor is one of only 24 conferred nationwide and the only one given in West Virginia this year.
“I’m very appreciative of this award on behalf of the school,” Rafes said. “I commend Kevin and Gary for their work. We need to have air that is as clean as possible.”
— E-mail: talvey@register-herald.com
