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Indoor Air Purifacation and Your Health
The air we breathe can contain many particles that can trigger symptoms, including dust mites, pollen, mold spores, pet dander, and smoke. Children are especially vulnerable to indoor contaminants since a child’s respiratory system is still developing.
You spend 80 to 90 percent of your time indoors, and you may have family members with health conditions which are affected by pollutants.In the past 20 years, an emerging and expanding body of evidence has shown that indoor air quality has tremendous impact on human health. Americans-especially infants, the elderly, and persons with chronic diseases-typically spend 90% of their time indoors where they can be exposed to very high levels of air pollutants. The American Lung Association, in cooperation with its Medical Section, the American Thoracic Society, has published an extensive review on the sources of indoor air pollutants, their associated health effects, and recommendations for environmental controls (ATS, 1990) and is in the process of producing a follow-up document to be published in 1997. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has ranked indoor air pollution as a high priority public health risk (U.S. EPA, 1990). Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) concluded that preventing exposure to environmental allergens and irritants may help prevent asthma (NHLBI, 1995).recent understanding of the adverse effects of indoor air pollution has prompted a steady expansion in the array of products and services related to indoor air quality. For residential environments, radon measurement and mitigation, air duct cleaning, vacuum cleaners and air cleaners have all been intensively marketed to improve indoor air quality.
Air cleaning, relies on devices that are either incorporated into the mechanical ventilation system or moved from room to room as portable units with an inherent blower to further reduce the concentration of airborne pollutants. Although air cleaners in general are not appropriate single solutions to indoor air quality problems, they can be useful as an adjunct to effective source control and adequate ventilation. Air cleaning alone cannot adequately remove pollutants from all sources typically found in residential environments. For example, some allergens settle out of the air fairly rapidly and are not always amenable to air cleaning. Nor does ventilation effectively remove such particles. Therefore, source control should always be the first choice for air pollution control in residences.
However, air cleaning is recognized as one of the three strategies to improve indoor air quality and has become increasingly popular as specific populations of individuals attempt to improve the air quality in their residences and immediate environs to relieve symptoms associated with various diseases such as asthma, rhinitis, sinusitis, and allergic respiratory disease. Air cleaning devices have existed for over 100 years and residential portable air cleaners are a rapidly growing market with annual sales estimated at $100 million (Janczewski & Caldeira, 1995). The American Lung Association is frequently asked by the medical community and the lay public alike about the usefulness of the various available air cleaning devices and technologies. With the prevalence of asthma increasing in the last decade, particularly in children, to an estimated 14.6 million Americans affected and the mortality rate due to asthma almost doubling, we must carefully consider the value of simultaneously applied source control, ventilation, and air cleaning in relieving symptoms and improving health. This report is generated in part because many Americans are using air cleaners to achieve beneficial health effects. Although these effects are not yet known, it is hoped that the gathered data will provide guidance for choices made in anticipation of health effects.
Indoor Air Pollutants of Concern
Air cleaners are generally marketed to reduce indoor air pollutants ranging from dusts to chemicals to gases. For the purposes of discussion, we will categorize indoor air pollutants of concern into two categories: particulate pollutants and gaseous pollutants.
Particulates are solid or liquid materials small enough to suspend in air. Particulates can include inorganic and organic compounds as well as small living organisms such as bacteria and viruses. Often, particulates in indoor environments include allergens such as dust mites and their feces and body fragments; cockroach body parts; dander from cats, dogs, and other mammals kept as pets or infesting homes; fungal spores; molds; pollens; and other allergen-bearing particles. While dust mites themselves are too large, dust mite feces and body parts can become airborne and the principle allergen of the dust mite is derived from its feces. Exposure to intact dust mites usually results from contact with bedding, upholstered furniture, carpets, and other reservoirs. Figure 2 lists the sizes of various types of particles and the time to settle one meter. Particulates are of principal concern from a health perspective because they can carry foreign proteins and because the smaller particles penetrate deeply into the respiratory tract. While larger particles (greater than 10 microns in diameter) get caught in the nose and throat, and are cleared naturally by coughing or swallowing, particles smaller than 10 microns in diameter are easily inhaled into the lungs. Of these, the smallest particles are most likely to reach to alveoli, where they can remain embedded for years, or in the case of soluble particles, be absorbed into the bloodstream. Figure 3 illustrates the deposition of various sized particles in the respiratory system.
Air cleaning has been widely used in industrial settings to control particulates, gases and vapors. It has been a standard means for air pollutant generating industries to comply with local, state, and federal outdoor air quality requirements. Air cleaning is also widely used as a part of local exhaust and ventilation systems to capture and eliminate air pollution for the protection of workers and sensitive equipment. Information on the use of air cleaning technologies in industrial settings has been provided in various reviews and studies (Theodore and Buonicore, 1982; Green, 1984).
Ref :American Lung Association
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