Tag Archives: allergens

Gun range air quality problems ?

That old adage: “guns don’t kill people, people kill people?” Turns out it was wrong. Guns do kill people, albeit slowly and from an unlikely source.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently conducted a study of air quality in gun ranges, taking blood samples from people who frequently attend the firing ranges, like law enforcement personnel. Then, the CDC compared the blood samples to people who don’t go gunning.

The Results

The finding: people who frequent ranges have elevated levels of lead in their blood. The lead is the result of inhaling lead dust, lead vapor and associated fumes, the byproduct of a gun’s discharge. Lead poisoning and long-term exposure to lead dust can result in severe abdominal pain, vomiting, seizures and even organ failure. The gun range air quality can kill you?

Clearly, gun ranges should consider indoor air quality and focus on improvements—like perhaps installing AeraMax® Professional commercial-grade air purifiers in common areas. These air purifiers remove up to 99.97 percent of airborne contaminants from enclosed spaces and employ hospital-type filtration with True HEPA filters.

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In recent years, foggy Londontown has been more like smoggy Londontown—that’s because diesel vehicle emissions have gone unchecked, spewing toxic nitrogen dioxide chemicals into an air that was more souplike than fresh.

Now, however, the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, plans to do something about it.

He’s proposed a doubling in funds to combat air pollution, and aims to improve overall air quality via new measures. The biggest move: he plans to improve the more than 9,000 buses in the city’s public bus fleet, retrofitting them to operate on clean diesel fuel or replace buses outright. He also will be creating a compensation fund to prompt taxi drivers to replace older taxis with electric or hydrogen-fueled cars with zero emissions.

In addition, he’s developed a “low emissions zone” in the city, where older diesel vehicles that produce more nitrogen dioxide pay more to enter. That hopefully will encourage owners of these vehicles to replace them in the long run.

“With nearly 10,000 Londoners dying early every year due to air pollution, tackling poor air quality is a public health emergency that requires bold action,” Khan said. “I want London to be a world leader in how we respond to the challenge of cleaning up our air.”

Still, there’s a long way to go. To wit: a plan proposed by the mayor to ban older cars altogether was voted down by the local government.

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THE PROBLEM

Diapers. Lots and lots of diapers.

Because the Jean Steckle Childcare Centre in Kitchener, Ontario caters to infants and toddlers, staff at the YWCA center were either changing diapers, disposing of them, or checking the children to see if a change was needed. And a change was needed.

That’s because diaper stations were placed in an open area—an area that was, well, ripe for lingering odors. But, Elaine Bridgewater, manager at the centre, didn’t just want to mask these odors. Instead, she wanted to eliminate them outright. And that’s where the change came in.

THE SOLUTION

So, she installed an AeraMax Professional AM III in the common area. Because it features a four-stage filtration system that removes both odors and 99.97% of airborne contaminants like viruses, germs and allergens from indoor air, Bridgewater was assured that the solution would address both smells and infection control. “Young children have quite immature immune systems, so we were looking for something to help in our fight against infections and viruses, (because) infection control is always very difficult,” she said.

ODOR-FREE AIR

The AeraMax Professional AM III fit the bill. “We have definitely seen a reduction in odors,” Bridgewater said. “We found that when you walk into the room, you can’t actually say ‘oh, someone needs a diaper change.’ We know that all the children have been changed and the smell is quite good.”

Best yet, teachers immediately noticed a change in the indoor environment—an absence of odors as well as a fresher atmosphere. Bridgewater also mentioned a positive contribution to morale. “(The teachers) feel a better sense of security, knowing that we are doing something above and beyond what’s required by having this unit—to keep them safe and healthy,” she said.

“I’d recommend (Aeramax Professional) to anyone who would like to improve the quality of their air—and to anyone who wants that extra edge in infection control.”

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It’s on its way—and we don’t mean Santa’s sleigh. No, we’re talking about another cold and flu season, because once the weather gets colder, all those doors and windows get shut tight. And that means indoor spaces and recirculated air will be rife with trapped germs and viruses. Given the majority of people spends upwards of nine hours per day in shared spaces with others, it’s inevitable that you’ll come into contact with those dreaded bugs.

HOW LONG DOES IT LAST?

While it’s difficult to predict the severity of the coming flu season—estimated to last until April of 2017—one thing is certain: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) assume several new strains will crop up during the time period. So, it will be increasingly difficult for people to stave off the virus without help.

GET THE FLU SHOT

The CDC recommends everyone over the age of six months get a general flu shot. And, it recommends that anyone over the age of 50 gets what’s called a high dose vaccine. The general flu vaccine protects against three of four of the most common strains, and may take up to two weeks to be fully effective. So, getting a flu shot early in the season is a must.

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One note: in recent years, a nasal flu spray vaccine became popular with folks who didn’t like needles. However, the spray wasn’t effective against flu strains that cropped up in the early spring of 2015, so medical professionals are recommending sticking (no pun intended) to the tried and true inoculation this year.

CLEANING AREAS IS VITAL

In addition to getting a flu shot, cleaning areas is vital, as the virus is passed along by aerosolized droplets spread through sneezing and coughing, as well as by touching surfaces infected with the droplets, which can travel in the air up to six feet from their point of origin.

To that end, using hand sanitizer is also a good bet; and it’s important to ensure that people who are sick stay home until they recover. People with the flu are usually contagious for a week after symptoms arise.

CLEAN THE AIR

Of course, an ideal way to combat colds and flu is by eliminating germs and viruses from the very indoor air we breathe. AeraMax® Professional’s complete line of commercial grade air purifiers remove up to 99.97 percent of indoor air contaminants like bacteria, germs, viruses, odors and volatile organic compounds from air, continuously and effectively. With its patented EnviroSmart™ Technology, each unit senses when indoor air needs to be cleaned, powering up automatically to quickly remove particles as small as .03 microns from the environs. And that could make for a very manageable cold and flu season this year.
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