The Hidden Cost of Indoor Air Pollution

 

Studies from the United States and Europe indicate that people living in industrialized nations spend more than 90% of their time indoors with a majority of it spent at work. In fact, according to the EPA, indoor air pollution is two to five times, and in some cases a hundred times, worse than outdoors. A big contributor to this problem comes from toxic cleaners being used in enclosed office spaces. Many of the cleaning products used to clean offices contain chemicals that can cause eye, skin and throat irritation, headaches, nausea, dizziness, breathing problems, cancer, or birth defects. Poor circulation and insufficient HVAC systems that collect and recirculate the toxic cocktail of evaporated chemical compounds around the office only exacerbate the problems.

Research done by Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, found that U.S. companies could save as much as $200 billion annually in worker performance improvements by creating offices with better indoor air. Employees are not only a company’s main source of income – they also make up a big part of a company’s operating cost. When an employee cannot perform their job optimally or calls out sick due to symptoms caused by poor indoor air quality they still need to get paid their salary despite their decreased productivity. With rising health care costs, the benefits of improving indoor air quality far exceed the cost of making those improvements. Many business owners and CEO’s do not realize that poor indoor air quality is creating an unnecessary money drain.

The National Institutes of Health Library of Medicine Household Products Database (www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov) lists almost any brand of cleaner, what’s in it, and its links to health effects. The database can be searched by chemical or by product brand. Some chemical ingredients to look out for are:

· Sodium Hydroxide – Inhalation is immediately irritating to the respiratory tract. Contact can cause severe damage to the eyes, skin, mouth and throat. Can cause liver and kidney damage. Found in dishwashing liquids, laundry products, oven cleaner, scouring cleansers and tub/tile cleaners.

· Hydrochloric Acid – Can cause severe damage to skin. Can be harmful to health, just by breathing fumes. Can be fatal if swallowed. Found in odor eliminators and toilet bowl cleaners.

· Butyl Cellosolve (2-butoxyethanol) – Can cause irritation and tissue damage from inhalation. Found in All-purpose cleaners, cleaning wipes, degreasers, floor polish, rug shampoos, toilet bowl cleaners, tub & tile cleaners and window cleaners.

Switching to green cleaning products creates a considerable impact on indoor air quality, the planet, health care and operational costs. A green cleaning pollution calculator can be found at www.ofee.gov/janitor to determine the environmental impact of using “green” janitorial services and products. According to the EPA, Americans generate 368 million pounds of hazardous waste from cleaning products per year. We would eliminate over 15 million pounds of toxic chemical cleaners a year if only 10,000 office buildings switched to green cleaning products. In addition to this, if only 1 out of 4 U.S. households switched to green cleaning products we would eliminate over 7 billion pounds of carbon emissions annually.

Another way to make an impact on indoor air quality is to clean the air. This can be done by using an air cleaner purifier. Air cleaner purifiers will help clean the air and green cleaning products will help to initially prevent hazardous toxins in the air.

 

How Toxic Is Your Air? Let an air cleaner purifier help!

 

THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM - Can you see why an air cleaner purifier can help?

• According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air pollution is the #1environmental health concern.
• Indoor air pollutant levels are often 5 times higher than outdoor air and occasionally upto 100 times higher.
• Indoor air quality is an enormous health concern for everyone because we spend 90% ofour time indoors.
• Every day the average adult breathes in 62 pounds of air and drinks 4.4 pounds of water.That means we take in 14 times more air than water. The large surface area of the lungs and the sensitivity of the tissues make them susceptible to air pollution.
• People who are inside a great deal are at greater risk of developing heart problems, or having problems made worse by indoor air pollutants. These people include infants,young children, the elderly, and those with chronic illness.
• Many ordinary activities such as cooking, heating, cooling, cleaning, and redecorating can cause the release and spread of indoor pollutants at home.
• “Sick Building Syndrome” is on the rise in this country.
• “Indoor air quality has deteriorated in our homes, offices, schools, restaurants, hospitals
• and office buildings. Buildings have become better insulated and therefore have lessfresh air circulating.” - EPA
• Closed buildings accumulate molds, mites, dust, bacteria and viruses. The result is thatthese sick buildings make people sick.
• 40% of all buildings are a serious hazard to our health because of their polluted air. -World Health Organization
• The EPA’s own headquarters had to be shut down due to “sick building syndrome”.
• In 1989, an EPA report to the Congress concluded that an improvement in indoor air quality would result in increased productivity, decreased loss of work days and decreased health care costs possibly leading to a savings of $10 billion.
• Pollutants in our indoor air can increase the risk and worsen important disease conditions such as asthma, allergies, sinusitis, chronic lung disease and chronic fatigue.
• 40 million Americans have allergies, 22 million people have asthma and millions more suffer from emphysema and other breathing problems.
• Recent studies have indicated that pollutants in the air can also trigger vascular reactions that lead to heart attacks.

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Types of Indoor Air Pollution

 

The EPA, in 1995, issued a statement to the U.S. Senate declaring that, Indoor air pollution is now our nation’s number one environmental health concern.

In light of ever-increasing energy costs, Americans are sealing their homes and buildings with better fitting windows, more effective insulation, and molding. New home and building designs have focused on improved energy efficiencies. We’ve effectively created structures that cannot breathe, causing stale air to circulate over and over without being thoroughly cleaned. In addition, the use of synthetic building materials has increased, leading to more emissions into the occupied spaces, especially when new. On top of this, studies show that most people spend most of their time indoors.

When homes and buildings are sealed up like this, moisture cannot escape. An increase in moisture can lead to mold growth. Air passing over the mold disrupts it and can lead to mold spores and fragments becoming airborne where they can be breathed in. Dust can harbor bacteria and mold. VOCs are Volatile Organic Compounds that come from common household items, such as cleaners, pesticides, paint and sealants, and of course tobacco smoke. In fact, tobacco smoke is a very complex mixture of chemicals, vapors, and particles that can remain airborne for many hours.

Types of Indoor Air Pollution

• Particulates — Particulate matter in the air is called an aerosol, which includes solid and liquid particles. Particles in the size range from about 0.001 to 10 µm (”micron” or “micrometer”) can remain airborne for long periods of time. Cat dander, which is an allergen to many people, is about 1µm and can remain airborne for several hours. Particles larger than 10 µm, up to 100 µm settle out of air in a matter of minutes.

The vast majority of airborne particulates are too small to be seen with the naked eye. One with good vision can see particles down to about 20 to 40 µm. A human hair is about 100 µm thick. Dust that you see on surfaces is a mixture of many different particles that have fallen out of the air and have stuck together. Human skin scales make up a large part of common household dust. Others are animal dander (skin), fibers from clothing, carpet, and other fabrics, food particles, soil or dirt, parts of plants, and parts of microscopic creatures, such as dust mites, fungus, and bacteria.

• Microbes – Microbe is short for microorganism, which simply means a small organism. More to the point, they are typically too small to be seen with the unaided eye. There are many different types and thousands and thousands of species of microbes. The ones that are important to indoor air quality are bacteria, fungus (mold and mildew). Bacteria are usually 1 µm or less in size. Mold spores are usually about 2 to 10 µm in size and can cause allergy in sensitive individuals when breathed in. Mildew is a common name for fungus that is growing on plants, fabrics, and other objects.
• Gases, Odors, and VOCs – All odors are gases, but not all gases are odors. That means that if you can smell a chemical in the air, it is a gas. One cannot smell a solid or a liquid until a portion of it enters the air. An important term for this is volatility. This simply refers to how easily a chemical can vaporize and become a gas. VOCs are volatile organic compounds and are very important to the study of indoor air quality. Studies have shown that more than 350 VOCs have been found at levels exceeding 1 ppb (part per billion). Some of the common sources for VOCs are building materials and furnishings, household and personal care products, automotive products, hobby supplies, and tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke alone can contain thousands of compounds including, gases, particulates, and VOCs.

Indoor Air Pollution Sources

This chart lists some of the most common pollutants and their sources found in homes and buildings today.

Category	Pollutants	Sources
Particulate	Dust	Humans, fabrics, outdoor air
Particulate	Pollen	Outdoor air, plants, transferred from clothing
Particulate	Tobacco	Smoke, Smokers
Particulate	Animal Dander	Animals
Microbial	Fungi - Mold	Spores Mold in HVAC ducts, carpets, plants, outdoor air
Microbial	Bacteria	Humans, pets, outdoor air, waste containers, toilets, HVAC ducts
Gas	Methyl mercaptan	Plastic, natural gas and propane additive
Gas	Butyl acetate	Lacquer, industrial chemicals
Gas	Methyl methacrylate	Plastic, paint, solvents
Gas	d-limonene	Cleaners, fresheners
Gas	Styrene	Plastic
Gas	Toluene	Solvents
Gas	Hydrogen sulfide	Toilet vents (water)

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About air cleaner purifier technologies

 

There are tons of different kinds of air cleaner purifiers available for purchase. This article will explain the different technologies that the air cleaner purifiers out there use.

Mechanical Filtration — Filter units vary in sophistication and levels of performance. Filters are typically rated and grouped by how efficiently they remove specific sizes of particulates from the air stream passing through them. Filters capture particles as small as 0.1 microns and on up to 100_ microns or more. Group 1 filters are low efficiency. Group 2 filters are medium efficiency. Group 3 are high efficiency and Group 4 includes ultra high efficiency filters. This will make more sense in the following descriptions.

Furnace filters are in Group 1. They are the filter that is typically located in your furnace or air conditioning system. They are there mainly to protect the equipment from excessive dust build up, which can act as an insulator causing heat build up. They capture large particles 10 microns in size and up. Filters like this are often placed ahead of higher efficiency filters and specialized filters, such as activated carbon filters, to protect them and extend their service life. They are usually made of fibers or a foam material.

Some manufacturers have started to offer furnace filters with greater efficiencies for smaller particles around 5 to 10 microns. That would place these in Group 2 as medium efficiency filters. These may help with reduction of large airborne particles such as hair, fibers, and pollen. Some make claims for removal of mold spores.

Bag and panel filters are not common in residential applications, being used mainly in commercial buildings. They are an example of high efficiency filters, but do not include HEPA (we’ll look at that technology next). Group 3 filters reduce at least 99% of 0.3 micron particles. HEPA and ULPA filters fall into Group 4 as very high efficiency filters. HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Arrestor (or more commonly Air). ULPA is Ultra Low Penetration Air.

HEPA filters are required to have an efficiency of at least 99.97% for 0.3 micron particles. And ULPA filters are required to have an efficiency of 99.9999% efficiency on 0.12_ micron particles. HEPA filters were originally developed for laboratory use to filter out very small particles. In the past 10 years or so, HEPA has became popular for residential usage for sufferers of pet allergies since it can filter out very small particles such as these. ULPA filters are typically only used in certain industries such as in clean rooms where particles may be damaging to the process or product being made.

Filtration in general can be effectively applied to the right situation to reduce particles from the air we breathe. However, there are some limitations to this technology.

• The filter can only capture particles that are brought to it. This requires a component such as a fan to force the air through the filter. All filters create some restriction to air flow, which must be considered when sizing the fan. As the filter captures more and more particles, this resistance increased. Too small a fan and not enough air will be moved through the filter. Too large a fan may reduce efficiency by increasing the velocity through the filter. Fans can be noisy too.

• Filters have little or no effect on odors and gases. Dust and other particles trapped in a filter can lend a great amount of surface area to the filter. These particles can adsorb chemicals from the air, which on one hand is a good thing. However, when the conditions change, such as increase in temperature or humidity, those chemicals can
desorb and enter the air. However, if not installed correctly, they can emit odors and gases by a process called desorption.

• Similar to the problem of desorption, filters can also act as a breeding ground for various microbes if the conditions are right. Studies have shown microbes growing in filter systems. Microbes, such as mold, need moisture to grow and a source of food. Most foam and fiber filter materials are not a food source, but the particles collected in them?especially dead skin cells?can be a food source. If the humidity is high enough, sufficient moisture can be present as well. Cleanable foam filters present a good environment for microbial growth if they are not allowed to dry completely when they are washed (?if they are ever washed!). As part of their metabolism (eating and growing), microbes release odors, which can enter the air stream.

Carbon Filters — Another type of mechanical filter is the carbon filter, which may be made from several different types of carbon that may be applied to it in different ways. The carbon may be “impregnated” into the fibers of the filter. The carbon may be crushed into granules that are kept in the filter, similar to a pillow. The key is how much carbon is available to the air stream, the size of the particles, and the type of carbon used.

Carbon filters, once again, if properly installed and maintained can be effective in reducing odors, gases, and VOCs. However, they suffer most of the same problems as described above about filters. Carbon is a food source for microbes, such as bacteria. Some manufacturers recognize this and add an anti-microbial agent to the filter attempting to eliminate microbial growth. The challenge to this method with carbon is to find the right amount of the agent and the right preparation. Otherwise, the carbon “sites” where the odor and gas reduction is supposed to
take place may become taken up by the additive, rather than the contaminant.

Electrostatic Precipitators — ESPs are electromechanical filters. These types of units capture particles, but do not reduce odors and gases, and are partially effective against microbial contaminants. They work by applying a charge to particles before they enter the collection cell or plates, where the charge is the opposite. Recall that opposite charges attract each other, so the charged particle coming into the unit will be attracted to the collection plates. As more and more particles are collected, the efficiency of the unit will decline. So, the plates have to be cleaned on
a regular basis for the unit to perform at its best. Another challenge to this technology is keeping the charging mechanism (a high voltage wire in most systems) clean. If the wire becomes coated with dust and other contaminants, the efficiency of the unit will decline. Cleaning the charging mechanism is often not easy to do.

As with filters, the collection plates become coated with particulates, bacteria and fungi in addition to other particles. The microbes can grow there if moisture is present.

Ionizers or Needlepoint Ionizers — This can be a confusing segment of air treatment units if one doesn’t know what to look for. There is more than one method to form ions in the air. One of them was just discussed above, the patent-pending AirSource Electron Generation technology. Another is the electrostatic precipitators described above. If the unit has a collection cell or plates, it’s an ESP. If it doesn’t have this, and uses needle points, then it’s a needlepoint ionizer. Needlepoint ionizers have a high voltage applied to them. Since, this voltage is not referenced to
ground it only has one place to go out into the air. The air around the device is subject to a concentrated charge. When particles pass nearby they can pick up that charge. The potential problem with this technology is that the particles can become overly negatively charged and if there isn’t a collection plate to capture them, they will start to stick to oppositely charged surfaces, such as walls, ceilings, and furnishings. This has been described as black wall.
The efficiency of needlepoint ionizers start to suffer with use as the needlepoints wear out from the constant electrical discharging (kind of like the spark plugs in a car engine). They either have to be replaced or sharpened periodically.

Ozone Generators — Units in this category produce ozone for the sake of treating the room with this oxidizer. Ozone has some efficacy in reducing simple airborne odors, but doesn?t work as effectively on gases, VOCs, and microbiological contaminants unless it is present in high concentrations. Such high concentrations are not healthy for people and pets to be in. You should make sure that the unit either has been engineered to produce only low amounts of residual ozone or has a proven mechanism to control the amount of ozone in the treated space. The controls on it should be tamper proof as well so that it cannot accidentally set too high of a level.

Depending on how the ozone is generated, the air within the unit can become very aggressive to the materials used in the construction of the unit.

Photohydroionization — The Photohydroionization process is a complicated chemical chain of events that leads to the
production of particular oxidizing ions. Oxidation is the process of adding oxygen to and causing a loss of electrons from a chemical. Advanced oxidation is the addition of a catalyst to drive the reaction at an accelerated pace.

Here’s the simplified version of the Photohydroionization process. The UV lamp provides the energy of the reaction in the form of full-spectrum ultraviolet light. Two wavelengths are of particular interest. One wavelength is in the middle range and is also called germicidal light. This light can make microorganisms unviable (that is, incapable of reproducing). This light strikes the Tri-metallic Catalyst target and starts the advanced oxidation process. Electrons are made available to react with oxygen in the air at the surface of the trimetallic catalyst. That air also contains moisture. Small amounts of residual ozone are produced by the second wavelength of light from the UV lamp. This wavelength is in the far range and is strong enough to split oxygen gas molecules–if you remember from high school science class; oxygen gas is two oxygen atoms joined together. Superoxide ions are also formed at the surface of the catalyst. This is the oxygen gas molecule with an extra electron, which makes it a strong oxidizer.

This should help you to understand the major differences are between air cleaner purifiers you may be looking at so you can make the most informed decision on the purchase of your new air cleaner purifier.

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