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CanadaWe spend 90% of our time indoors—and indoor air can be teeming with irritants that trigger allergies and asthma. Get the facts about allergies and asthma and what you can to do relieve symptoms in your facility.
Tag Archives: asthma
In recent years, scientists and health care professionals have focused more attention on the effects of poor indoor quality in a variety of settings. Two recent studies have turned the spotlight on an area that historically has been rife with germs, viruses and bad air: daycare centers.
Because daycare centers cater to children from infants to toddlers to pre-school-aged children, the chances of passing along germs and bacteria are relatively high.
The Finnish Study
So researchers in the city of Espoo, Finland—part of the metropolitan Helsinki area—looked at a random sample of 30 daycare centers to determine overall indoor air quality, gauging humidity, CO2 concentrations, temperature, airflow and other metrics.
If the air quality was already compromised, it would be made worse with the introduction of germs, viruses and bacteria. They took air samples during a one-day period and found air quality across the board was poor.
- CO2 levels were charted beyond safe limits.
- Older buildings not using newer HVAC systems experienced the worst levels.
- Airflow was inadequate and temperature and humidity levels varied.
Children and staff were not well served, and air quality levels needed significant improvement. Surveys conducted with staff members cited unpleasant odors as the most prevalent perceptual problem.
The South Korean Study
But the bad air in childcare facilities is not isolated to Finland. A similar study was conducted by researchers in Seoul, Korea, where measurements were taken at 25 daycare centers. The researchers found high levels of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene and styrene in the air. Their findings also showed significant levels of bacteria and mold, which was prevalent because of water damage to older centers and buildings. The study concluded that much more needed to be done to ensure healthier environments for children with still developing respiratory systems.
But what to do?
One answer lies in actually cleaning the air. AeraMax Professional air purifiers have been proven to effectively and efficiently remove contaminants from indoor air. Using a True HEPA hospital-type filtration system, AeraMax can rid the air of bacteria, VOCs, viruses, odors, germs and other irritants. It removes up to 99.97 percent of these pollutants from indoor air, sensing when the air needs to be clean automatically.
To see how AeraMax Professional helped childcare centers and nurseries, check out our case studies. Daycare facilities from France to Canada trust AeraMax Professional to make their facilities cleaner and healthier.
According to the American Lung Association, more than 40 percent of Americans breathe in dirty air every day. That’s the findings from the association’s annual State of the Air report, which tabulates the quality of air in cities across the United States, factoring in smog, air pollution, carbon monoxide levels from car exhaust and spikes in temperature, which “cooks” pollution to make it more intense. The overall effect: dirty air can cause difficulty in breathing, decrease life expectancy and may even contribute to lung cancer.
Given the topographical shape of California—it resembles a bowl that traps bad air at lower levels, instead of allowing it to float into the atmosphere—it’s no wonder that a number of the cities with the worst pollution are from the so-called Golden State. The Los Angeles area ranked number one on the list of most polluted cities over a 24-hour period, followed by the Bakersfield, Visalia, and Fresno, CA areas, respectively. Fairbanks, AK ranked fourth, primarily because a great number of residents use wood-burning stoves and fireplaces for heating; these appliances cause the releases of harmful chemicals that linger in the air.
Top 10 Most Polluted Cities:
1.Los Angeles – Riverside – Orange County, CA
2.Bakersfield, CA
3.Visalia, CA
4.Fresco, CA
5.Fairbanks, AK
6.Modesto, CA
7.San Jose – San Francisco – Oakland, CA
8.Salt Lake City – Provo – Orem, UT
9.El Centro, CA
10.Pittsburgh, PA
For the most polluted cities with annualized results, Fairbanks, AK took top (dis)honors. This means the city had the worst year-round results. In terms of most polluted cities with regard to ozone production, Los Angeles, CA ranked first.
And cleanest cities?
That would be Cheyenne, WY, followed by Honolulu, HI and Casper, WY, because they have relatively smaller population centers.
Still, the numbers are alarming. What’s more, given that indoor air is two to five times more polluted than outdoor air, there’s real concern about the air we breathe. Simply staying indoors on high-ozone days doesn’t cut it.
Instead. You need to ensure that indoor air is clean. The best way to do that, in our opinion: get an AeraMax Professional air purifier. The complete line of professional-grade air purifiers effectively and efficiently clean indoor air, removing up to 99.97 percent of harmful contaminants—like germs, viruses, odors, volatile organic compounds, odors and pollutants—from indoor air, using hospital-grade True HEPA filtration.
So, while you can’t necessarily move from your area to get better air, you can make the air better, with AeraMax Professional.
AeraMax Professional had a great chance to spread the Gospel of Clean Air when it was invited to shed light on air purity challenges in the dental lab industry during a two-part interview featured on the Voices from the Bench podcast recently. Voices from the Bench, hosted by industry professionals Elvis Dahl and Barbara Warner Wojdan, explores a variety of dental lab topics, ranging from emerging technologies to industry news.
For a two-part interview (episodes 25 and 26, available here) ), the pair created a roundtable with Tad Friess of Rockert Dental Labs, Mike Booth, AeraMax’s Senior Global Market Manager—Air Treatment, and Blake Bobosky, AeraMax’s VP/GM of Air Treatment Sales, North America. The group discusses the challenges facing dental lab owners and employees who work in dust- and odor-filled environments. Friess also recounted the work done by staff at AeraMax Professional to identify previous poor air quality issues at his lab, as well as the solutions provided through the installation of AeraMax Professional air purification units, stating that the installation completely eradicated the dust and air quality issues.
LISTEN HERE:
Part 1
Part 2
Climate Change
Climate change has really done a number on the US this winter: Southern California has been deluged by torrential rains, the East Coast has been hit with summer-like weather, and tornados—usually seen in late spring and early summer—have cropped up in February in the Midwest. And in the Southeast? Winter meant nothing, with Atlanta experiencing an average temperature increase of nine degrees; New Orleans had an eight-degree uptick and Charlotte had almost a ten-degree increase.
Allergy Seasons Starting Sooner
All that wet and warm weather means one thing: allergy seasons will start sooner and will be prolonged, because in some areas, allergy producing blooms emerged in late February. In fact, according to the National Allergy Bureau, tree pollen is already a problem, with reports of high concentrations throughout the South and into the farthest tip of Florida.
With such an early start to the season, people are already experiencing allergy symptoms. According to Thomas Johnson, MD, of Allergy and Asthma Care of Florida, in Ocala, FL, sufferers should get tested to determine exactly what pollens they are allergic to, before getting medication or trying over-the-counter remedies.
Additionally, people can track pollen counts at the National Allergy Bureau website (www.aaaai.org/nab) to minimize exposure and start treatment before the allergy season hits hardest.
What to do at Home?
At home, allergy sufferers should consider:
- Doing outdoor activities after it rains, or in the evening, when pollen counts are generally lower
- Avoiding hanging clothes outside to air dry
- Showering after outdoor activities to remove any clinging pollen.
- Frequently washing eyes to remove contact with airborne allergens.
What to do at Work?
At work, employees who are allergy sufferers should ensure that doors and windows are kept closed, and should talk with facility managers about ways to remove allergens from the indoor air.
Facility managers themselves should understand that allergens are brought in from outdoors in a number of ways: from fresh air being pumped into facilities; on the clothing of people coming in from outdoors; and by opened windows.
AeraMax Professional Fights Allergy Season
Key to helping alleviate sufferers’ symptoms is ridding the air of allergen spores to begin with, by using AeraMax® Professional commercial-grade air purification. Each AeraMax Professional unit removes up to 99.97 percent of airborne contaminants, like germs and allergens, from indoor air, greatly reducing the triggers for seasonal allergies. Indeed, helping allergy sufferers requires facility managers to “clean for health,” using air purification as a foundation for fighting allergy season.
