Coronavirus spread through pipes? Strange, but true.\u00a0 Provided those pipes are drain and vent stack pipes.<\/p>\n
As reported by CNN a high-rise apartment building in Hong Kong (Hong Mei House) has been evacuated as a precaution due to several cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections.\u00a0 That is viewed by some as extreme, but there were important clues the virus could have been transmitted through damaged or improperly modified pipes.\u00a0 The reported cases were above and below one another, and in at least one apartment the vent pipe had been disconnected and left open.\u00a0 Transmission might have been through other vectors, such as elevator buttons, but in a densely populated area there’s good reason not to take any chances.<\/p>\n
Why are those clues important?<\/p>\n
All drains and toilets connect to a sewer line.\u00a0 You might not know it even exists, but that line has a vent pipe that goes up to the roof to get rid of odors and harmful sewer gasses.\u00a0 In a high rise building those sewer and vent\u00a0lines run vertically down to ground level or below.\u00a0 If everything’s functioning properly there’s no problem.\u00a0 But any openings can release gasses and disease organisms that may have entered from a sink or toilet (COVID-19 may be present in feces), allowing viruses to become airborne again.\u00a0 Especially with a bathroom or kitchen exhaust fan pulling in air.\u00a0 Health officials determined that this was actually\u00a0a significant source of transmission for SARS.<\/p>\n
With the potential to become a pandemic, the Chinese government is taking aggressive measures to contain the corona virus\u00a0outbreak.\u00a0 Related to the common cold, this coronavirus spreads is more easily than SARS or MERS, but fortunately far less deadly with mortality rates ranging from less than 1\/4% nation-wide to just under 5% in Wuhan\u00a0 itself.\u00a0 Plus it’s far\u00a0less<\/em>\u00a0contagious than measles.<\/p>\n So for those in the United States it’s always good practice to follow flu-prevention measures such as hand washing and putting the toilet seat down before flushing.\u00a0 But there’s no reason for panic or extreme measures.<\/p>\n There are also some things you can do to make sure your plumbing is up to grade as a precaution against infections diseases in general.\u00a0 A plumbing inspection with attention to drain, sewer, and vent lines is always a good idea.<\/p>\n Have you noticed a U-shaped pipe\u00a0under a sink?\u00a0 U-traps (sometimes J-traps) hold water that forms a seal between the sink and the drain line and vent.\u00a0 With only occasional use or a leak there might not be any water there to do the job.\u00a0 So for rarely used sinks, tubs, and showers as well as floor drains and toilets run some water from time to time.\u00a0 And if you smell a foul odor coming from these fixtures it’s time to call a plumber.<\/p>\n [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][fusion_tagline_box backgroundcolor=”” shadow=”no” shadowopacity=”0.1″ border=”1px” bordercolor=”#666″ highlightposition=”left” link=”tel:7607448489″ linktarget=”_blank” buttoncolor=”blue” button=”(760) 744-8489″ title=”Coronavirus Concerns?” description=”Call Now for Prompt and Professional Service” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″][\/fusion_tagline_box]<\/p>\n ASAP Drain Guys & Plumbing is\u00a0 A+ BBB rated<\/a> and have been serving San Diego since 2001. Learn more<\/a> or contact us<\/a> any time.<\/strong><\/span> \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coronavirus spread through pipes? Strange, but true.\u00a0 Provided those pipes are drain and vent stack pipes. As reported by CNN a high-rise apartment building in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-slab-and-water-leaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asapdrainandplumbing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What You Should Do About Coronavirus and Plumbing<\/h2>\n