Gavriel Kleinwaks & Karam Elabd at Works in Progress:
After epidemiologists linked typhoid outbreaks to water cleanliness, cities began building large-scale sand filtration systems in the 1890s, and in 1908, Jersey City pioneered the first continuous chlorination of a public water supply. By the 1920s, typhoid deaths had fallen by two-thirds, and waterborne diseases were in retreat across the country.
While typhoid and other waterborne diseases triggered vast engineering and regulatory responses, the equivalent airborne threats have not. Tuberculosis alone kills more than a million people every year around the world, yet the air in schools, clinics, and public buildings remains largely unfiltered and unmonitored. Covid-19, which killed over seven million people, demonstrated how rapidly airborne pathogens can spread in poorly ventilated spaces.
Just as filtration and chlorination made drinking water safe at scale, we now have the tools to do the same for indoor air: ventilation, high-quality filters, and germicidal light.
More here.
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