Los Angeles’ Staggering Need for Commercial Air Filtration

Learn How Commercial Air Filtration Can Improve Air Quality for the Citizens of Los Angeles

Around the world, air pollution is a leading cause of ongoing health problems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), exposure to pollution contributes to lung cancer, heart disease, and asthma – among other serious conditions. In cities like Los Angeles, where pollution is particularly evident, preventative measures like commercial air filtration are necessary for human health and survival.

More than 133.9 million Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Los Angeles, in particular, is known for its staggering pollution. Even though California has seen an improvement in air quality over the past few years, Los Angeles ranked highest in a study measuring the number of high ozone days in metropolitan areas. In other words, the problem is bad. And, without further prevention and purification, it could get worse.

For decades, experts have turned to residents for assistance by encouraging the use of public transportation, calling for a ban on hazardous products, and discouraging outdoor exercise. But what can you, as a business owner, do for your community? The most direct course of action is to improve the health of your customers and employees by making an investment in commercial air filtration.

What is Commercial Air Filtration?

The system responsible for removing pollutants like dirt, dust, and debris from circulating air in your business is known as high efficiency commercial air filtration. The main component of this system is your air filter. Some filters, like those containing carbon, may remove odors in addition to other gaseous pollutants. They also have a high efficiency at removing ozone. Your filtration system is a piece of a bigger picture – your heating, cooling, and ventilation system (also known as HVAC).

Particle air filters are made from a variety of materials, including foam, fiberglass, and pleated paper. The quality of your filter is based on its MERV rating. The higher the rating (ranging from 1 to 16), the more pollutants your filter will remove and the longer your filter will last.

How Commercial Air Filtration Systems Can Improve Los Angeles

In a city responsible for the health and economic future of millions of people, stakeholders in Los Angeles are trapped in a paradox. Those interested in making the city healthier are themselves suffering from its ongoing pollution.

And the problem isn’t solely, or even mostly, outdoors. Did you know that indoor air pollution is one of the five greatest health risks facing American citizens today? Business owners that refuse to invest in commercial air filtration often leave the air within their buildings more polluted than the air outside – directly harming customers and employees, rather than helping them.

While men, women, and children concerned for their safety may decide to leave Los Angeles, the choice is rarely so easy for business owners, who establish themselves in a single location and rely on regular customers to pay the bills. Since business owners have a strong interest in making the city appealing to young couples, families, and executives, commercial air filtration serves as a strong incentive to stick around.

If small businesses, hotels, public transportation, and office buildings are safe, citizens have thousands of safe harbors throughout the city in the very places that could have posed the highest risk.

Who Stands to Benefit from Commercial Air Purification?

It can be difficult to determine just how many people can benefit from your commercial air purification system. The numbers can range from tens to thousands. Anyone who walks through your door is exposed to cleaner, healthier air – paying customer or not. The more business owners participate in air filtration, the more citizens of Los Angeles will benefit from the investment.

A particularly large impact is made on your employees, who spend dozens of hours each week in the workplace. In the United States, thousands of retirees succumb to work-related illnesses like mesothelioma, COPD and lung cancer; diseases that festered within their host for decades. By using a high-efficiency filtration system, you’ll guarantee your employees a healthier present and a healthier future.

Finally, your choice to purify the workplace will have a positive impact on your health and economic well-being, in addition to the health of your family and friends.

Choosing a Commercial Air Filtration System for Your Los Angeles Business

Your commercial air filtration system hinges its effectiveness on the quality of your air filter. Without a sufficient filter, the investment is pointless. The strongest product available to business owners, by far, is the HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Absorber) filter.

HEPA filters come highly recommended for businesses that need the highest level of indoor environmental protection to protect from fumes and chemicals. HEPA filters are often found in hospitals, high tech industry manufacturing and other facilities where contaminants may be particularly harmful to people or processes.

A HEPA filter can remove up to 99 percent of contaminants from circulating air in your building. A cheap, bargain filter may remove less than 10 percent.

It’s important to choose a brand that cares deeply about the well-being of your customers and your staff. At Camfil USA, we believe in making cities like Los Angeles healthy again. To learn more about Camfil air filters in LA please click here.

 

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Lynne Laake

Camfil USA Air Filters

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Sources:

1. http://who.int/
2. https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/air-pollution-worst-us-cities-2018/15/
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEPA

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Commercial Air Filters Are Needed to Trap Cigarette Toxins

Learn How Cigarettes Harm the Environment and Create A Greater Need for Commercial Air Filters and Industrial Air Filtration Units

Many people know that smoking cigarettes can be harmful to their lungs. Some people also know that secondhand smoke can be harmful to people standing nearby the person smoking. Yet not that many people are aware of just how damaging to the environment as a whole cigarettes can be, or the overall amount of toxic air pollutants that cigarettes can release into the air. As it turns out, cigarettes can release a shocking amount of air pollutants, contributing to atmospheric levels of air pollution and harming the health of all of society. These air pollutants make the use of high efficiency air filters much more necessary.

Just how much air pollution is released by a cigarette? How do these pollutants harm people’s health, and what can people do to protect themselves from the toxic byproducts of cigarettes?

High Efficiency Air Filtration Units Can Filter Out The Dangerous Compounds in Cigarettes

When cigarette smoke is expelled into the air, it is made out of various concentrations of toxic air pollutants. The pollutants contained in cigarette smoke include nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and various volatile organic compounds. These volatile organic compounds include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and particulate matter.

Nicotine is the primary ingredient in cigarettes, and it is what gives them their addictive quality. Most cigarettes get their nicotine from refined tobacco leaves, combined together with a variety of other compounds to create three different forms of nicotine in cigarettes. These three different forms of nicotine can be released into the air depending on how acidic or basic the formula used was.

“Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic compounds made out of only carbon and hydrogen,” said Kevin Wood, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Camfil USA commercial air filters. “They can be quite dangerous to human health and are often released by the combustion of biofuels like wood or coal.  In the 1980s, smoking accounted for roughly 90% of indoor air pollution. With our efforts towards non-smoking facilities and smoking prohibitions, a significant difference has been made limiting cigarette exposure, but it still can be identified when doing air quality testing in some buildings. It may be introduced through outside air intakes or an avenue of transfer between adjacent buildings.”¹

Heavy metals like lead and cadmium can be introduced into the air through cigarette smoke, originally having found their way into the tobacco used for the cigarettes through tainted soils where the plant was grown or by contamination in the facility where the cigarette was produced.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a number of different compounds that can interact with sunlight and heat to create smog and ground-level ozone. Ozone is harmful at ground level, unlike in the upper atmosphere where it protects the planet from ultraviolet radiation. Volatile organic compounds can include things like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Cars and industrial processes are another main source of these pollutants, as they primarily come from the combustion of fossil fuels, but the combustion of tobacco can release them as well.

Particulate matter (PM) is a catch-all term for any small particles of air pollution, liquid or solid, capable of entering the human lungs and bloodstream, doing significant damage to the cells of the body. PM pollution is split into three classes: PM1, PM2.5 and PM10. These particles are smaller than 1-micron in size, smaller than 2.5-microns in size, and smaller than 10-microns in size respectively.  The smaller the particles are, the more damage they can do to the human body.  The composition of particulate matter can vary, but PM pollution is always dangerous.

High Efficiency Air Filtration and Ventilation Protects People’s Health from Cigarette Toxins

Industrial air filtration and ventilation is an effective way of protecting people’s health from exposure to the air pollutants released by cigarettes. The pollutants can easily build up indoors, increasing the risk that occupants of the building will develop several different cardiovascular and respiratory ailments.

“The health effects of exposure to PAHs depend on how long a person is exposed to them and the concentrations of the PAHs,” Wood added. “The health effects of exposure to PAHs can include damage to the liver and kidneys, as well as the development of cataracts. Some PAHs are known to cause cancer in animals and have been associated with the increased risk of bladder, lung, or skin cancer in humans.”²

Exposure to heavy metals like lead and cadmium can easily damage the whole body. There is no known safe level of lead exposure, and lead can negatively impact the entire nervous system, as well as damage the liver and kidneys. Exposure to particles of cadmium can cause symptoms similar to the flu, including muscle pain and chills, and can damage the lining of the lungs.

Exposure to sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide can also damage the lining of the lungs, leaving them more vulnerable to infection. Nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide exposure have also been correlated with the development of ailments like asthma and emphysema. Exposure to ozone is known to degrade lung function after repeated exposure and lead to dizziness and wheezing in the short term.

Particulate matter is known to be extremely dangerous to human health, capable of causing a wide variety of different health problems. The tiny pollution particles are capable of damaging many different organs, although the lungs and cardiovascular system are the primary areas of damage. Particulate matter exposure is correlated with the development of asthma, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ischemic heart disease, and lung cancer.

Commercial Air Purifiers Become More Necessary As More Cigarettes Are Smoked

While the air pollutants released by cigarettes can lead to health damage and increase the need for commercial air purifiers, how much pollution exactly is released by cigarettes? Estimates about the concentration of pollutants included in secondhand smoke vary, but the pollution released by cigarettes can end up being substantial.

“At least one study estimates that the air pollution released by cigarettes was ten times greater than the pollution released by diesel exhaust engines,” stated Wood at Camfil USA commercial air filters. “This was done by comparing the number of pollutants generated by idling a diesel vehicle for 30 minutes in a garage using low sulfur fuel to the cigarettes left smoldering in the same garage for 30 minutes.”³

As for the amount of pollution released by a single cigarette, though the amount may vary from brand to brand, the average amount of PM2.5 pollution released is approximately 14 milligrams of pollution. When it is considered that the weight of the average cigarette is only about 0.9 grams total, this is a substantial amount of pollution released by only one cigarette.

“Cigarettes can also harm the environment and people’s health in more indirect ways. The farming of tobacco requires massive amounts of water and land,” said Wood. “To get the land needed to grow tobacco, regions of forest are often deforested. These deforested regions lose a substantial percentage of their ability to absorb air pollutants like carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.” 

Industrial HEPA Air Filters Can Absorb Harmful Particulate Matter

Due to the fact that cigarettes release a large number of toxic chemicals and particulate matter into the air, if one must live in a place where cigarettes are frequently smoked, they may want to use industrial HEPA air filters to reduce their amount of exposure to particulate matter.

HEPA filters (high-efficiency particulate air) filters are filters that are capable of absorbing up to 99.97% of all particulate matter down to 0.3-micron in size almost all of the time. HEPA filters can be invaluable tools for those who cannot reduce their risk of being exposed to cigarette smoke in other fashions and should be employed by those who have special sensitivities to particulate matter, such as those with pre-existing health conditions like asthma.

High Efficiency HVAC Air Filters Should Be Combined with Efforts to Reduce Smoking

Commercial HVAC air filters filter toxic air pollutants, like those released by cigarette smoke, but they can’t address the larger problem of smoking in general. Combating the air pollution created by smoking may only be done by curbing the number of people who smoke. Strategies to encourage smokers to quit smoking or to prevent people from becoming smokers include education, no-smoking zones, and taxes on cigarettes.

Educating people about the damage cigarettes do to their health can be effective at reducing incidences of smoking when done correctly. Studies suggest that education campaigns should emphasize the benefits of not smoking over the risks of not smoking, creating incentives to stop smoking.

No smoking zones and smoking taxes are also ways to deter smoking. These systems make smoking more of an inconvenience and thus deters people from continuing to smoke or starting smoking in the first place.

Camfil USA HEPA air filters can provide you with the filters you need to protect your lungs from particulate matter and cigarette smoke. Contact Camfil USA commercial air filters today to order high quality filters and receive support from trained professionals.

Lynne Laake

Camfil USA Air Filters

T: 888.599.6620

F: Friend  Camfil USA on Facebook

Y: Watch Camfil Videos on YouTube

L: Follow our LinkedIn Page

Sources:

1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53014/

2) http://www.idph.state.il.us/cancer/factsheets/polycyclicaromatichydrocarbons.htm

3) https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/12481.php

4) https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/31/health/tobacco-environment-who-report/index.html

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Why are people selling fresh air to Chinese buyers?

The Scary Reasons Why China Is Using Canned Air Instead of Relying on Industrial Air Filters

Camfil Commercial Air Filter News – It’s well known that China suffers from severe levels of air pollution, largely as a consequence of its rapidly growing and industrializing economy. This toxic air pollution decreases visibility and makes it difficult to breathe. Cities that struggle with severe air pollution in China often need to rely on industrial air filters just so that residents can breathe without being exposed to massive amounts of air pollution.

Is the air pollution in China so bad that Chinese citizens are willing to purchase clean air?

One entrepreneur in Great Britain, Lew De Watts, has developed a company that sells jars or bottles of clean air to people around the world. One of the company’s biggest markets is China, and many glass jars full of clean British air have been dispatched to cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

Why would citizens in China purchase jars of clean air?

Aren’t commercial and industrial air filters and air purifiers wiser investments?

HVAC Air Filters in Commercial and Industrial Applications Are Important For Removing Particulate Matter And Ozone

The air in cities like Shanghai and Beijing is often packed full of dangerous air pollutants. These air pollutants include compounds like ground-level ozone and particulate matter. HVAC air filters are designed to remove these toxic air pollutants from the air so that people can breathe easier while indoors.

When ozone is in the upper atmosphere, it shields us from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Yet at ground level, ozone is a toxic air pollutant that contributes to smog and damages people’s lungs. This ground level ozone comes from the interaction of heat and sunlight with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including things like formaldehyde, styrene, benzenes and gasoline fumes. Sunlight has energy, and this energy can easily transform these compounds into toxic ozone.

Particulate matter doesn’t refer to any one kind of air pollutant, but is instead a catch-all term for any small particles of air pollutants that pose a threat to human health. Particulate matter is usually divided into three different categories: PM1, PM2.5 and PM10. These particles are smaller than 1-micron in size, smaller than 2.5-microns in size, and smaller than 10-microns in size respectively. The smaller the particles are, the more dangerous they are to human health.

“Most particles are sub-micron, or smaller that 1-micron in size and at that size they can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, doing damage to the body,” warned Camfil’s Charlie Seyffer, Manager of Marketing & Technical Materials and 37-year ASHRAE member and active committee participant. “. Particulate matter can come from a number of different sources, like the combustion of fossil fuels, the burning of biofuels, construction and road traffic.”¹

The air that De Watts’ company sells to Chinese consumers is substantially cleaner than the air in China. It has far less particulate matter and ozone air pollution within it.

Commercial Air Filtration Systems Can Prevent Harmful Diseases from Developing

It’s important for those who live in polluted regions of the world like Shanghai or Beijing to have access to commercial air filtration systems. Commercial air filtration systems use industrial air filters to trap particles of pollution and then push the cleaned air through the building, preventing dangerous particles from being inhaled. This is important since breathing in particles of air pollutants like ozone and particulate matter can cause a number of different health problems.

“High concentrations of ozone can irritate the eyes, throat, and nose. It can cause, coughing, wheezing and general difficulty breathing deeply,” explains Seyffer. “Chronic exposure to even low levels of ozone can permanently impair lung function. Ozone exposure can also make the development of ailments like pneumonia and emphysema more likely, by degrading the protective lining of the lungs and making them more vulnerable to infection.  Ozone exposure can also exacerbate previously existing respiratory conditions like asthma.”²

Particulate matter can damage the lungs causing issues like asthma. It can also affect the rest of the cardiovascular and respiratory system, causing ailments like chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, heart attack, ischemic heart disease and increasing the risk of developing lung cancer. The particulate matter is even capable of riding the bloodstream up to the brain where it can penetrate the blood-brain barrier and cause brain damage.

While breathing clean air is important to one’s health, it isn’t the primary reason that people in China are buying jars of clean air from De Watts’ company. One of the primary reasons why people in China are purchasing jars of clean air from De Watts is to make a political and social statement on the severity of pollution and the necessity of both industrial air filtration units and air pollution reduction policies.

Canned Air Isn’t Intended as a Serious Replacement for High Efficiency Air Filtration Units

High efficiency air filtration units, combined with pollution control strategies, are the best ways to ensure people’s health in polluted regions such as Shanghai. The air jars being sold by De Watts’ company are typically being purchased as novelty gifts that will go unopened, rather than as any serious attempt to breathe in the clean air. The act of purchasing clean air is also a symbolic gesture, a political statement on the fact that air pollution is so severe in China but that air is so clean elsewhere.

“The company De Watts starts selling jars of clean air at around 115 dollars per jar. The jars contain about 580ml or 20 ounces of air, and since De Watts launched his startup last year, he has apparently sold hundreds of jars of clean air, harvested from the countryside around Great Britain,” described Seyffer. “The air is collected at around 5 AM in the morning when pollution levels are often lowest. Both ozone levels and particulate matter levels are low in the early morning hours.” (3)

De Watts lives in Hong Kong and often sells his clean air at local street markets. His jars draw a sharp contrast to the air quality in China, a country that just recently issued the first ever ‘red alert’ for air quality in Beijing. So while the jars sold by De Watts aren’t intended to be serious solutions to China’s air pollution problem, they do highlight the need for industrial air filtration and policies to reduce air pollution.

Portable Air Purifiers Can Be Used Alongside Commercial Air Filtration and Ventilation

High efficiency air filtration and ventilation are important tools that allow people in heavily polluted cities to protect their health. They can be used in either HVAC systems or in standalone portable air purifiers.

When choosing a filter for an HVAC system, be sure that the MERV level of the filter meets your needs. MERV is a system of ranking how efficient a filter is at absorbing pollutants, and the higher the MERV rating of a filter the more pollutants it can remove. If possible, HEPA filters should be considered. These high efficiency particulate air filters can remove particles down to 0.3-micron in size and they are typically used in hospital operating suites and high-level air quality manufacturing processes that use clean rooms.  

Portable air purifiers are useful during times of intense air pollution when the regular filtration afforded by HVAC systems is insufficient.  Portable air purifiers should be used in rooms where people spend most of their time, like bedrooms while asleep or living rooms while awake. Check to make sure the portable air purifier you purchase uses replaceable HEPA filters, as other forms of pollution neutralization are less efficient.

Commercial Air Filtration Devices Can’t Protect People’s Lungs by Themselves

Commercial air filtration devices are critical tools that can protect the public’s health, especially in cities like Shanghai that suffer from air pollution that regularly hits orange air quality alert levels. Unfortunately, however, these devices can’t protect people from air pollution when they venture outside. For those who live in China’s polluted cities, it is important that they take measures to protect themselves and to cut down on air pollution levels.

Those who must travel outside on days with poor air quality should utilize industrial grade filtration masks, as regular masks designed to prevent the transmission of microbes aren’t small enough to filter out particulate matter. Industrial face masks are designed to capture the particulate matter generated from activities like sanding and painting. For this reason, they can protect people’s health in the way other masks can’t.

People who must be outside for extended periods of time should also pay attention to air quality forecasts and venture outside when levels of air pollution are at their lowest. Air pollution is usually less severe in the early morning.

It’s also important for both citizens and regulatory bodies to work together to reduce air pollution. Government bodies can enforce limits on air pollution emissions and create the infrastructure to limit emissions, but individual citizens will have to make changes to their lifestyle by choosing to walk, using public transportation or biking to work instead of driving.

Camfil USA industrial air filters can advise you on how to best protect your health from air pollutants while traveling abroad in China or elsewhere. Contact us today to have all your questions answered by knowledgeable professionals and to purchase high-quality industrial air filters.

Lynne Laake

Camfil USA Air Filters

T: 888.599.6620

F: Friend  Camfil USA on Facebook

Y: Watch Camfil Videos on YouTube

L: Follow our LinkedIn Page

 

Sources:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/air/particulate_matter.html
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21253670
3. https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/08/world/fresh-air-britain-china-bottles/index.html

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How Wildfires Are Affecting Your Air

How High Efficiency Air Filters Keep People Safe During – and After – Wildfires

Wildfires can cause intense air pollution that lasts for months and requires the use of high efficiency commercial air filters and portable commercial air purifiers

Wildfires are dangerous enough due to the flames that can damage landscapes and homes, but they can also contribute to deadly air pollution. The combustion of biofuels, things like wood, grasses, shrubs, and forbs, can release a wide variety of toxic air pollutants including black carbon and particulate matter. Wildfire flames can also release dangerous chemicals like benzenes and other volatile organic compounds. Depending on the conditions of the weather and geography of the landscape where the fire took place, these air pollutants can hang around for long, protracted periods of time, doing continual damage to the health of people in the region.

Because the pollutants released by wildfires can be so dangerous it is important to know what the pollutants are, how they can harm you, and what steps you can take to protect yourself from them.

Commercial High Efficiency Air Filtration Units Can Trap A Variety of Toxic Air Pollutants

The combustion of biofuels can easily release particulate matter and carbon in the form of soot and smoke. When wildfires burn hot enough they can also lead to the formation of compounds like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. These compounds can do substantial damage to people’s health when inhaled.

Volatile organic compounds include things like benzenes and methanol. These compounds can be formed by the burning of soil or biofuels, fusing together different chemicals in a way that is similar to how industrial facilities release these compounds as byproducts. Many volatile organic compounds are precursors to ozone. When ozone is in the upper atmosphere, it’s a beneficial chemical that shields us from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Yet at ground level, ozone is a toxic air pollutant that damages people’s lungs.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are colorless air pollutants which can be released by wildfires as they combust sulfur containing soil or biofuels. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide not only harm people’s lungs, they contribute to acid rain and the damaging of water tables.

“Particulate matter refers to a number of different small particles of various chemical compositions. The only requirements that exist for particulate matter are that the particles are small enough to penetrate the human lungs and bloodstream, doing damage to the cells of the body,” stated Camfil’s Charlie Seyffer, Manager of Marketing & Technical Materials and 37-year ASHRAE member and active committee participant. “Particulate matter can be either liquid or solid, and the most critical sizes are smaller than 2.5 microns in size, or smaller than the width of a human hair. Because so many different particles can count as particulate matter, it should be no surprise that wildfires can release large amounts of particulate matter pollution. Small particles of soot, smoke, and dirt can all be sent into the air by wildfires.” ¹

High Efficiency HVAC Air Filters Can Prevent Health Damage from Wildfires

Exposure to the air pollutants released by wildfires can cause different respiratory and cardiovascular ailments. The particles of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds and other forms of particulate matter can cause the development of many different diseases and conditions like asthma, emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and decreased lung function. High efficiency HVAC air filters can protect people from developing these ailments.

Volatile organic compounds are harmful to human health. VOCs like benzenes are known carcinogens, which increase people’s risk of developing cancer. Ground level ozone is also dangerous to human health. Exposure to air pollution can exacerbate asthma, emphysema, and bronchitis. High-levels of ozone can also cause difficulty breathing, coughing, and wheezing. Continuous exposure to ozone may also cause permanently reduced lung function.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide exposure can lead to headaches, difficulty breathing, wheezing and coughing in high concentrations. Continuous exposure to nitrogen dioxide may be responsible for the development or exacerbation of conditions like asthma. Nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide can also increase the lung’s susceptibility to respiratory infections, making the development of conditions like pneumonia more likely.

“Particulate matter exposure is extremely damaging to people’s health,”Seyffer said. “PM exposure can lead to the development of a variety of different health problems because it can damage the cells of the lungs. PM exposure can lead to conditions like asthma, stroke, ischemic heart disease, obstructive pulmonary disorder, and an increased risk of developing lung cancer.”²

Commercial Air Filtration Systems Become More Necessary As Wildfires Burn

In terms of the amount of air pollution released by wildfires, wildfires can easily dwarf the amount of air pollution released by even substantial sources of air pollution like cars in California. A report released by the University of California, Davis found that a week’s worth of the air pollution caused by the 2017 fires in California released enough air pollution to rival a year’s worth of air pollution released by the cars in the state.

“The wildfires that ravaged the state of California in 2017 released approximately 10,000 tons of particulate matter into the air,” stated Seyffer. “The particulate matter released by the fires consisted of not only carbon released by the combustion of biofuels but also many hazardous volatile organic compounds released by the burning of chemical containers and buildings.” ³

The sheer amount of air pollution that is released by wildfires can send people to the hospital, and the State of California had more hospitalizations in 2017 during the wildfires than at other times of the year. Those who are uniquely sensitive to air pollution like children, the elderly, and pregnant women should be especially careful to guard themselves against air pollution.

The pollution from wildfires may stay in a region for weeks on end, depending on the geography and weather in the area. Mountains may make air pollution stay in an area, trapping the particles in a valley between them, such as often happens to air pollution in California’s central valley. Weather patterns can also prevent particles of air pollution from dispersing, cold air inversions can trap air in a bowl above a region, and summer heat can exacerbate air pollution by turning the VOCs released by fire into smog and ozone.

Commercial Air Purifiers Can Defend Against Air Pollution and Smoke

The dangers involved in being exposed to air pollution means that people should use portable commercial air purifiers to protect their health from dangerous air pollutants. Portable air purifiers are those which can be used in a home and provide extra protection against air pollutants. Portable air purifiers should be placed in rooms where you spend most of your time, like the living room during the day or in your bedroom while asleep.

Be sure to purchase portable commercial air purifiers that use replaceable filters. Avoid portable air purifiers that use ozone generators and avoid electrostatic precipitators, as these devices don’t effectively trap air pollutants and they may generate ozone as a byproduct of their operation.

Traditional filters in HVAC systems may be inadequate for filtering out the toxic air pollutants released by fires, and therefore portable air purifiers should be used to augment the filtering capabilities of traditional HVAC systems. Portable air purifiers can be especially helpful to those who have special sensitivities to air pollution.

HEPA Air Filters Can Trap Particulate Matter

Portable air purifiers and air filtration systems should utilize industrial level HEPA air filters. HEPA filters, or High-Efficiency Particulate Air filters, are capable of trapping the dangerous particulates that are spewed into the air by wildfires.

Industrial HEPA filters can capture up to 99.97% of all particulate matter down to 0.3-micron across. HEPA filters have tight fiber weaves that are responsible for trapping air pollutants within the filter while the filtered air moves on. The more pollutants that a filter can capture, the tighter the weave of the filter. If you have purchased a HEPA filter, be sure that it actually meets the standards developed by the Department of Energy, as some filters are referred to as “HEPA-type,” though they can’t actually remove the smallest and most dangerous particles from the air.

Camfil USA commercial air filters can provide you with the filters you need to protect you from the emissions generated by wildfires. Contact Camfil USA air filters today to purchase high quality replacement filters guaranteed to minimize your exposure to pollutants.

 

Lynne Laake

Camfil USA Air Filters

T: 888.599.6620

E:Lynne.Laake@camfil.com

F: Friend  Camfil USA on Facebook

Y: Watch Camfil Videos on YouTube

L: Follow our LinkedIn Page

 

Sources:

1. https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/06/15/study-wildfire-pollution-much-worse-than-thought/102882646/
2. https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=smoke.index
3. https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/health/california-fires-air-pollution-trnd/index.html

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Defending the Productivity of Workers from Dangerous Pollutants

Industrial air filters can affect the economy and the productivity of workers by protecting the health of workers from air pollution related diseases.

It’s clear that air pollution impacts people’s health and the environment. This is obvious to anyone who has been in a city with severe air pollution. Something else that is true, if less obvious, is that air pollution harms people’s productivity in addition to their health. People who work in office buildings in large cities, where air pollution levels are often quite high, are frequently less productive than their counterparts who work in clean air conditions.

Beyond this, air pollution causes a variety of illnesses. Respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses created by air pollution often lead to missed work days or even hospital visits. The world spends billions of dollars treating conditions associated with exposure to severe air pollution every year, constituting an even larger drain on the economy. How can air pollution be reduced to minimize the impact it has on the economy? What can office workers do to protect themselves against the threat of air pollution?

Commercial HVAC Air Filters Trap The Most Dangerous Air Pollutants

The average office worker in a city like Shanghai, Beijing, London or Los Angeles is exposed to a variety of harmful air pollutants on the way to and from work, and even while in the building where they work. The air in major metropolitan cities tends to be full of a variety of air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter. Recent estimates predict that the high levels of particulate air pollution in Los Angeles cost the service-sector almost $375 million dollars over 90 days. What are the sources of the primary sources of the economically damaging air pollutants?

Nitrogen oxide comes from the interaction of nitrogen with the oxygen particles found in the air. When nitrogen is released by the combustion of fossil fuels, it combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to create nitric oxide, which then goes on to combine with more oxygen to create nitrogen dioxide. Though nitric oxide is not typically a major health hazard, in high enough concentrations it can be and nitrogen dioxide can be dangerous even at lower concentrations. Nitrogen oxide forms thick smog and acid rain, impacting visibility and damaging the environment.

Sulfur dioxide is similar to nitrogen oxide in that it comes from air mixing with byproducts from the combustion of fossil fuels. The discharged sulfur that is emitted from various industrial processes combines with oxygen in the air to create sulfur dioxide. Frequent sources of sulfur dioxide include industrial facilities (like those which process ore), locomotives, ships, and fossil fuel-based power plants.

While ozone protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet rays when it is in the upper atmosphere, in the lower atmosphere it is a toxic air pollutant. Ozone isn’t emitted directly into the air like some other air pollutants.  Instead, it comes from the interaction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with sunlight and heat. There are many different sources of volatile organic compounds, including car exhaust, household chemicals like paints and cleaners, building equipment, printing shops and gasoline stations.

Particulate matter doesn’t refer to one pollutant in particular – it covers a wide variety of different tiny particles that are harmful to human health.

“When particles of air pollution are below a certain size, they are capable of entering into the human lungs and bloodstream, causing substantial damage. Particulate matter is usually grouped into three different categories, PM1, PM2.5 and PM10. These particles are smaller than 1-micron in size, smaller than 2.5-microns in size, and smaller than 10-microns in size respectively,” says Kevin Wood, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Camfil USA commercial air filters. “Because particulate matter refers to so many different kinds of pollutants, they can have many different sources, but the combustion of fossil fuels at industrial facilities, power plants, and by motor vehicles are major contributors to PM air pollution.” (1)

Commercial Air Filtration Systems Help Prevent The Development of Diseases

Commercial air filtration systems should be used within an office building to protect the health, and the productivity, of workers in said buildings. Exposure to the various air pollutants can cause a variety of health problems such as irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Long-term exposure to air pollutants can cause more severe afflictions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and lung cancer. Air filters can also reduce infectious cough and sneeze droplets that transfer colds and the flu.

Exposure to nitrogen oxides can cause a number of different lung problems, impacting a person’s ability to breathe. They can cause or aggravate respiratory conditions like bronchitis and emphysema, and exacerbate previous existing heart conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. Exposure to nitrogen oxide is also correlated with the exacerbation of asthma.

Sulfur dioxide primarily damages the cardiovascular system, causing various respiratory illnesses like asthma and emphysema. Sulfur dioxide can aggravate existing heart diseases and lead to issues like chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, much like nitrogen oxides.

Ozone and other kinds of photochemical smog can irritate the lungs, and lead to headaches, nausea, chest discomfort, and the exacerbation of asthma. Continuous exposure to high concentrations of ozone can permanently impair lung function and may make a person’s lungs more vulnerable to infection.

Particulate matter can lead to asthma attacks, visits to the emergency room, and even premature death. The small particles can cause a number of different health problems such as stroke, heart attack, arrhythmia, pneumonia, and lung cancer.

High Efficiency Air Filtration Units Can Keep The Productivity of Workers High

Air pollution can harm the health and productivity of office workers, and increase the need for high efficiency air filtration units in a number of ways. It can decrease the overall level of productivity of workers, making them think and react more slowly, distract them from their work with coughing or wheezing, and necessitate sick days or trips to the hospital.

“One study found that as the air pollution index increased by 10% in the concentration of air pollution, the number of calls handled by a call center fell by about 0.35% per day,” says Wood at Camfil USA commercial air filters. “This means that overall workers were about 6% more productive on days with low air pollution, compared to when air pollution was high. A separate analysis found that if China could reduce its air pollution index by 10 points overall, worker productivity would go up around $2.2 billion every year.” (2)

These findings are neatly explained when you consider the activity that occurs in office buildings situated in polluted cities accounts for around 64.5% of global GDP. Separate studies have resulted in findings that corroborate the results of this research project. When workers were tested in two different environments, those who were tested in the “green conditions” performed approximately 61% better at a variety of cognitive tasks than those who were tested in the normal (polluted) office conditions.

Researchers also found that workers who work in green-certified office buildings have approximately 30% fewer headaches and perform around 25% better on cognitive tasks than their counterparts who work in non-green certified buildings. While this study tracked the effects of indoor air pollution rather than outdoor air pollution, the pollutants that impact people’s health are usually quite similar for both indoor and outdoor conditions.

Research suggests that spending approximately $40 per person on indoor air quality every year can lead to a $6500 increase in the productivity of employees, negating the need for employees to take as many sick days due to ailments caused by air pollution.

Portable Air Purifiers Can Be Used Alongside Filters in HVAC Systems

Managers of office buildings can protect the productivity and health of their workers by using portable air purifiers. Portable air purifiers give an extra level of protection to a building over its regular HVAC system. Portable air purifiers can remove the toxic air pollutants from the air within a building that may infiltrate in from outside the building, as well as from indoor sources of air pollutants.

Any portable air purifier purchased should include a replaceable HEPA air filter. HEPA filters are High-Efficiency Particulate Air filters, and they are capable of removing up to 99.97% of pollutants as small as 0.3 microns across. Electrostatic precipitators and ozone generators should be avoided as these devices can emit harmful ozone as a by-product and are less effective than purifiers that use HEPA filters.

High Efficiency Air Filtration and Ventilation Can’t Combat Ambient Air Pollution

High efficiency air filtration and ventilation are capable of defending the health and productivity of office workers, as long as those air pollutants are indoors. Air filtration is of minimal help against the ambient air pollution that harms workers on their way to and from work. For these reasons, policies to reduce levels of ambient air pollution should be enforced. The United States EPA suggests that economic and engineering solutions should be used together to curb air pollution.

Economic air pollution reduction policies include the creation and enforcement of limits for emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities. Vehicle emissions limits are important as motor vehicles are one of the primary sources of air pollution, and the creation of these limits causes automobile manufacturers to invest in the creation of emissions-reducing devices like catalytic converters. Emissions limits are also important for power plants and industrial facilities, and punitive measures can be augmented with cap and trade programs to encourage companies to voluntarily lower their emissions.

“Engineering-based solutions include the creation of devices to capture and reduce emissions from power plants, industrial plants, and motor vehicles,” says Wood. “Wet scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators, absorbers, and filters can all be used to reduce the overall amount of air pollutants released by a specific facility. Switching to cleaner forms of energy generation, such as solar energy, wind energy or hydro energy are highly effective ways of reducing air pollution, as is powering electric vehicles with the energy generated from clean energy sources. ” (3)

Camfil USA air filters can ensure that your productivity is always at maximum by providing you with the most effective commercial and industrial air filters around, so contact Camfil USA commercial air filters today.

Lynne Laake

Camfil USA Air Filters

T: 888.599.6620

E:Lynne.Laake@camfil.com

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Sources:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/air/particulate_matter.html
2. https://www.epa.gov/air-quality-management-process/managing-air-quality-control-strategies-achieve-air-pollution
3. https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/10/economist-explains-2

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