According to experts, the Netherlands has relaxed ventilation rules in the catering industry in an irresponsible way, writes NRC. The new standards are now well below the standard recommended by the World Health Organization.
Due to an amendment to the Licensing and Catering Act, which came into effect this month, the ventilation standard for the catering industry has become five times lower in practice. The law originally stated that the air must be completely refreshed every ten minutes. From 1 July, the catering industry must meet the requirements of the Building Decree: for existing catering buildings, this means that the air only needs to be refreshed about once an hour. For new buildings, the requirements are slightly higher, but still far below the World Health Organization standard.
Preventing odor nuisance
Experts who spoke to the newspaper find it incomprehensible that the outgoing cabinet lowered ventilation requirements in the middle of the corona crisis, while the catering industry has turned out to be an important source of contamination. According to the experts, the requirements in the Building Decree are not aimed at combating the transmission of infectious diseases, but mainly at combating odor nuisance.
The cabinet has also not asked RIVM to assess whether lowering the ventilation standard is justified, according to an inquiry from NRC. A spokesperson called the standards from the Building Decree “minimal” to the newspaper.
CO2 measurements for air quality
The Outbreak Management Team wrote in an advice this week that there is no scientific research available that indicates which level of ventilation is sufficient to minimize the risk of contamination in indoor spaces, but advises the cabinet to stick to the earlier, stricter ventilation standard for the time being. . It is not known whether the government will adopt that advice.
In the meantime, a study is underway into the usefulness of CO2 measurements as a measure for ventilation. This is already being worked on in Belgium. Belgian catering businesses are obliged to have a CO2 meter that measures the air quality.
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