Air Pollution’s Toxic Relationship with Climate Change

It’s no secret that air pollution particles generated by cars, diesel trucks, factories, cooking stoves, coal-fired power plants, and forest fires are all major contributors to the dirty and unhealthy layer of smog that blankets several cities and regions around the world. It’s also one of the many factors driving demand for commercial high efficiency filters.

How Climate Change Is Driving Demand for Commercial High Efficiency Filters

“Internal combustion engines can be a source of indoor air pollution in offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, shopping centers, and stores especially where garages are attached,” points out Camfil USA’s Charlie Seyffer, Manager of Marketing & Technical Materials for commercial air filters and 37-year ASHRAE member and active committee participant. “In large cities with a high number of vehicles present, the ambient air normally contains a high number of particles and gases.”

Of course, there have been improvements, particularly over the last 50 years. The days of thick smog (also known as ozone pollution) choking out industrialized cities that came to define life in the 50s are finally behind us—a feat made possible by the passage of the Clean Air Act, which pushed for stricter air quality standards in the United States.

But air pollution is still a serious problem today, especially amid growing concerns about their connection to climate change.

The Same Emissions Captured by Commercial High Efficiency Air Filters Cause Climate Change

The combustion process that happens in cars, power plants and factories produces chemicals such as H2O, NO, NO2, CO, and CO2, as well as particulate matter (PM). Fortunately, these emissions can be removed by commercial high efficiency filters.

These pollutants, along with hydrocarbon gases, vapors, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), however, are also key drivers of climate change. Methane and black carbon, in particular, are the top contributors to climate change after carbon dioxide.

Air pollutants affect the amount of heat radiation from the sun that is reflected or absorbed by the atmosphere. Some pollutants contribute to a greenhouse effect happening in the atmosphere, while others actually have the effect of blocking solar radiation and temporarily cooling the planet by a few degrees.

Either way, it’s causing unpredictable and unnatural changes to the world’s climate.

Climate Change Exacerbates Air Pollution, Making Commercial High Efficiency Air Filters More Important than Ever

Not only does air pollution contribute to climate change, but the shifts in temperature also create the environments conducive to smog formation, which in turn, causes air to stagnate and prevents dirty air from leaving an area. To protect people from exposure to pollution, government agencies around the world, including the EPA, have encouraged the installation of commercial high efficiency air filters.

For proof, one need only look at the levels of ozone pollution in the air, which saw a significant spike in 2014 to 2016—the same time the planet experienced some of the warmest years on record. And according to the American Lung Association’s 2018 State of the Air Report, worsening ozone pollution levels have exposed 134 million Americans to unhealthy, contaminated air.

While air pollution levels are unmistakable in major metropolitan cities such as New York City and Los Angeles, the problem has now reached smaller communities like Fresno and Bakersfield.

Are Air Purifiers Effective Against Air Pollution?

While New York City and Los Angeles have made great strides in improving air quality in recent years, they still have a long way to go before making the air in their respective cities completely safe to breathe. And while that happens, people are turning to HEPA air purifiers to protect their homes and buildings from outdoor air pollution.

Many people make the mistake of believing that the solution to poor air quality outdoors is by spending more time indoors. This approach, however, completely ignores the fact that outside air can still enter a building through cracks on the walls, floors, and ceilings, as well as its ventilation system, hence the need for a filtration system.

Isn’t This What HVAC Air Filters Are For?

Not at all. HVAC air filters are designed to protect the performance and efficiency of the HVAC unit, not the people in the room. The paper filters that come with a furnace or air conditioner capture dust and other debris that may cause the machine to work too hard or malfunction.

In contrast, a true high efficiency filter is designed to specifically capture the pollutants that can cause a host of health issues, such as:

• Lung cancer
• Asthma
• Allergies
• Emphysema
• Chronic bronchitis

In other words, HVAC air filters are for HVAC systems. High efficiency air filters are for the occupants of a home or building.

Choosing a High Efficiency Filter

Because not all air filtration systems are built the same way, it’s important to choose a high-quality, high efficiency filter. Although price is not necessarily a mark of quality, cheap filters tend to perform poorly. For best results, focus on high-performance air filters with a high clean air delivery rate (CADR) that matches your containment needs.

If you want to learn more about protecting your indoor quality with industrial air filters from Camfil USA, please click here.

 

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What Policies Can Governments Implement to Lower Pollution Levels?

Despite the tremendous efforts to make the air cleaner and safer to breathe since the 1970s, air pollution continues to be a major problem in the United States, impacting both the environment and public health. The latter is also the reason why high efficiency air filters are a much-needed addition in many homes and buildings. Air pollution, after all, can still affect indoor air quality.

How Policies and High Efficiency Air Filters Partner to Solve Air Pollution

Under the Clean Air Act, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to work with state, local and tribal governments, as well as other federal agencies and stakeholders, to lower air pollution levels and mitigate their damage.

“Although technically passed in 1963, the Clean Air Act of 1970 (1970 CAA) was the first law to authorize the federal government and states to create regulations to limit emissions from both stationary sources and mobile sources of air pollution,” notes Camfil USA’s Charlie Seyffer, Manager of Marketing & Technical Materials for commercial air filters and 37-year ASHRAE member and active committee participant. “For more than 40 years, the Clean Air Act has proven time and again that protecting public health, building the economy, and keeping the air clean and safe can go hand in hand.”

Four major regulatory programs for stationary sources of air pollution arose from the law:

• The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
• New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)
• State Implementation Plans (SIPs)
• National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs)

A Future Where Commercial High Efficiency Filters Are No Longer Needed to Fight Outdoor Air Pollution

The Clean Air Act has done much to reduce air pollution across the United States as the economy continues to grow, so much so that a time may come in the future when commercial high efficiency filters are no longer needed.

For starters:

• The Clean Air Act of 1970 has proven that protecting public health and growing the economy doesn’t have to be at odds with each other.
• Clean Air Act programs have succeeded in lowering levels of six common types of air pollutants:
  • Particulate Matter (PM)
  • Ozone
  • Lead
  • Carbon Monoxide
  • Nitrogen Dioxide
  • Sulfur Dioxide
• Between 1970 and 2015, aggregate national emissions of these six pollutants dropped by an average of 70 percent. Meanwhile, the country’s gross domestic product grew by 246 percent—a reflection of the efforts of state, local and tribal governments, the EPA, the private sector, and environmental groups among others.
• Reductions in emissions have naturally led to dramatic improvements in air quality. From 1990 to 2015, the national concentrations of lead have improved by 85 percent, 84 percent for carbon monoxide, 60 percent for nitrogen dioxide, and 67 percent for sulfur dioxide.

“Not surprisingly, these air quality improvements have allowed many cities, counties, and states in the country to meet national air quality standards and protect the public health and the environment,” said Seyffer.

How Heavily Polluted Cities are Coping Using Commercial High Efficiency Air Filters

Of the many U.S. cities dealing with poor air quality, Los Angeles perhaps offers the best example of what government intervention can do to solve the problem of air pollution. Yes, most homes and buildings in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area still require commercial high efficiency air filters to maintain safe indoor air quality levels. But even though L.A. ranks number 4 on the American Lung Association’s annual “State of the Air” report, it has actually made great strides in improving air quality in recent years.

Much, however, still has to be done. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti himself recognizes the dangers of air pollution on the health of his constituents, so much so that in 2017, he ordered city building inspectors to inspect whether air filtration systems were being installed in homes and buildings located along freeways, where air pollution tends to be the worst.

Teams from L.A.’s Department of Building Safety were deployed to determine whether buildings and dwellings were outfitted with the proper-strength air filters to prevent occupants and residents from pollutants found in car and truck exhaust. City Council also beefed up its building inspection systems to keep staff updated with air filtration and containment standards.

City Planning May Reduce Need for Commercial High Efficiency Air Filtration Systems

Los Angeles’s example of requiring commercial high efficiency air filtration systems in homes and buildings along freeways highlights the importance of city planning.

For example, a look at Oakland’s air quality maps shows that air pollution tends to vary from one location to the next. Local governments can leverage air quality information and emissions data to guide their city planning decisions in ways that protect residents from exposure to air pollution, for example, by ensuring that housing developments, hospitals, and schools among others are located away from places with high levels of air pollution—think freeways and industrial facilities.

Planning on this level could have prevented students in Camden, New Jersey from being exposed to high levels of disease-causing airborne pollutants. This type of exposure to students is an effect of the practice of constructing public schools on the cheapest plots of land, which are often next to industrial and manufacturing facilities, which produce pollution emissions.

Local and regional governments can also leverage air pollution data to guide their transportation planning efforts, while private companies can use this information in managing their freight activities.

Lastly, local governments can use this information and provide funding for the installation of air filtration systems in buildings located in highly polluted areas, just as Los Angeles has been doing.

Going Beyond Commercial Air Filtration Systems

Aside from the installation of commercial air filtration systems, it’s important to address the challenges that communities and countries face when trying to improve outdoor air quality, especially in urbanized areas.

As with many policy challenges, the key is knowledge. Sure, there’s a large body of literature on the health effects of outdoor air pollution as well as the possible policies to mitigate the problem altogether. But the common obstacle to policy development, especially when it comes to the problem of air pollution in cities, is the lack of access to information on air pollution levels and air pollution sources.

When it comes right down to it, there’s often a lack of awareness about the health dangers of outdoor air pollution in urban communities. It can be due to a gap in data from air quality monitoring, or a lack of appreciation of the possible solutions to improve air quality.

In other words, governments need to do a better job of arming their constituents with the information they need to make informed decisions about their lifestyles, which in turn, can help solve the air pollution problem.

One web site that addresses this problem is AirNow, developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Residents of areas can view in almost real time the criteria pollutants in their area from monitoring stations located in most urban areas throughout the country.

The Importance of Not Settling for Commercial Air Purification Systems

While reducing exposure to air pollution—which is what commercial air purification systems do—is important and presents several critical benefits, cutting pollution emissions at the source is still the most powerful tool for protecting both the environment and public health over the long run. As the federal government, EPA, and other government agencies have shown, it’s policies and initiatives like the Clean Air Act and its related programs that have done the most to reduce levels of airborne pollutants.

In other words, there needs to be a bedrock of regulation and policies in place before real change can happen. When you have a top-level call for change, everything else falls into place.

If you are interested in learning about improving your indoor air quality with commercial air filtration systems from Camfil USA, contact us today and browse our catalog of air filtration systems.  

 

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Camfil USA Air Filters

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Your Children Are Vulnerable to Air Pollution!

Over the past 30 years, state and federal initiatives designed to improve air quality have made great strides towards reducing air pollution levels. While things have indeed improved and the days of smog-covered cities that defined life in the 50s are long behind us, it’s hard to deny that commercial air filtration is still necessary in many parts of the world.

Among the many measures used to fight pollution levels include the push for:

• Stricter standards for vehicle emissions
• The use of “cleaner” fuels
• Cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy
• Improved public transport to reduce the number of cars on roads

Together, these strategies have resulted in a dramatic reduction in air pollution levels in major metropolitan cities in the United States. But there is still much to be done, and a growing body of literature suggests that children may be paying the price for it.

“Over the last few decades we have seen an increase in the incidences of respiratory diseases among children,” said Camfil USA’s Charlie Seyffer, Manager of Marketing & Technical Materials for commercial air filters and 37-year ASHRAE member and active committee participant. “Asthma is perhaps the most common respiratory disease among children, followed by other health problems such as allergic reactions, bronchitis, and respiratory infections.”

Not surprisingly, the increase in these health issues among children has been connected to air pollution.

Why Children May Benefit More from High Efficiency Air Filters

According to the American Lung Association, children are especially susceptible to the health effects of air pollution because their lungs are still growing and developing, hence their need for high efficiency air filters.

This susceptibility is further compounded by the unique habits, characteristics, and behaviors of children.

• Because children are usually more active than adults, they tend to breathe in a greater amount of air.
• Not only do both children and infants breathe more rapidly than adults, they usually do it through their mouths, bypassing the natural filtration that happens when a person breathes through their nose.
• Children also spend significantly more time outdoors than adults, especially in the warmer months of the year when smog levels and allergens like pollen and dust are usually at their highest.
• Children also have narrower airways that are more likely to be obstructed by allergic reactions from air pollution.

“The health effects of air pollution go beyond respiratory problems,” adds Seyffer. “For example, when a child inhales lead particles circulating in the air, they can deposit themselves in the child’s rapidly growing bones.”

There’s a host of airborne contaminants that, when inhaled by a child, can affect the development of his or her nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, making them prone to cancer later in life.

Commercial HEPA Air Filtration Systems Can Remove Pollutants Affecting Children

The Clean Air Act recognizes the health hazards of common air pollutants, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies as “criteria” air pollutants. By far, the most common criteria pollutants are ozone and particulate matter (PM)—substances commercial high efficiency air filtration systems are designed to capture and remove.

Particulate matter is composed of microscopic particles around the same size as a one-hundredth the width of a strand of hair and smaller. Although when we think of particulate matter the first things that come to mind are particles from diesel equipment, smoke from cigarettes, and industrial runoff, it can also come from natural sources such as forest fires, pollen, and dust among many others.

Either way, PM can cause problems when inhaled—something that can be especially dangerous among the elderly, expecting mothers, children, and people with existing respiratory and cardiovascular issues. PM can bypass the body’s natural “filters” and end up deep in the smallest alveoli of the lungs. When this happens, PM can trigger allergic reactions and respiratory problems like coughing, wheezing, runny nose, and even headaches. It can also be transferred to the blood creating additional health havoc.

Prolonged exposure to PM can also affect the growth of lungs in children, an effect observed in children that grew up in smoggier parts of the country.

Do Commercial High Efficiency Filters Remove Ozone?

Yes, commercial high efficiency carbon filters can remove ozone (O3), also known as the major component of smog. Ozone forms through atmospheric chemical reactions between sunlight and various gases found in industrial emissions and motor vehicle exhaust such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).

More importantly, ozone can be a dangerous respiratory irritant known to cause:

• Inflammation in the lungs
• Temporarily reduced lung function
• Chest pains
• Shortness of breath
• Wheezing

For children who are already asthmatic, exposure to high ozone levels can exacerbate their symptoms. If it happens repeatedly, ozone exposure may permanently reduce lung function.

Will Spending More Time Indoors under the Protection of HVAC Air Filters Help?

Most people think the solution to air pollution is to spend more time indoors, where the air, “treated” by a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) unit, is safe to breathe. After all, don’t HVAC air filters remove all impurities from the air?

This mentality, however, is not the case. The paper filters that usually come with furnaces and air conditioning units are designed to protect the machine from dust and debris, ensuring that it runs without using too much energy. These filters don’t actually treat the air that people breathe, not when their purpose is to prevent dust, hair, and other debris from clogging the furnace or AC unit.

Sure, HVAC air filters still offer some degree of air filtration action, but this is merely a fortunate consequence of what they’re really designed to do—to protect the HVAC system.

In contrast, high efficiency filters are designed to capture and remove very small particles that can be detrimental to human health. That includes dust, debris, allergens, mold, mildew, and pet dander, all of which can compromise a child’s respiratory health.

It’s precisely for this reason that high efficiency filters are found in places that require a high degree of air sanitization, such as schools, commercial facilities, manufacturing sites, and medical facilities.

Protecting Children Requires Going Beyond Commercial High Efficiency Air Filters

Study after study on air pollution and its effects on children’s health point to the obvious: improving air quality will also improve children’s health. This effort, however, requires more than just depending on the ability of commercial air filters to purify the air.

For starters:

• Clean your living spaces to reduce the likelihood of dust, dust mites, and pet dander from circulating in the air.
• Clean or remove surfaces with signs of water damage. These surfaces are the perfect breeding ground for disease-causing mold and mildew.
• Service the air filter in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations.

Other measures you can take to support your child’s lung function include:

• Ensure your child gets enough exercise. The combination of poor air quality and lack of physical activity can make children more susceptible to the effects of pollution. A child who exercises regularly also has stronger lungs and cardiovascular system.
• Ensure your child has proper nutrition. Diet can have just as significant an impact on lung health as air quality.

If you are interested in learning about improving your indoor air quality with commercial air filtration systems from by Camfil USA, please click here.

 

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Protecting Ourselves from Air Pollution

Buying High Efficiency Air Filtration: Is it real or a myth? The rise of commercial air filtration comes alongside increased concerns over the problem of air pollution. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that around 7 million people around the world (or one in eight people) died as a result of exposure to polluted air.

It’s a finding that exceeds previous estimates by more than 200 percent, confirming suspicions that air pollution is now one of the world’s most pressing environmental health risks.

“Long-term exposure to ultrafine particles found in polluted air can increase your risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases,” notes Camfil USA’s Charlie Seyffer, Manager of Marketing & Technical Materials for commercial air filters and 37-year ASHRAE member and active committee participant. “Air pollution is a particularly serious problem for people living in urban areas, where there is often a high concentration of soot and smog particles, which in turn, increase the risk of death for these people.”

Particulate below PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in size), becomes more harmful as they can now penetrate the alveoli of the lung and enter the walls of blood vessels. In other words, these microscopic contaminants can join the bloodstream in circulating through the body, reaching vital organs like the brain, heart, liver, and endocrine system, increasing the risk of disease development.

What is Air Pollution and How Do High Efficiency Air Purification Systems Eliminate It?

Simply put, high efficiency air purification systems are designed to remove the hazardous particles found in polluted air.

Air pollution basically refers to the release of particles into the air that is hazardous to human, animal, and plant health. Recognizing the dangers of uncontrolled air pollution, Congress passed the Clean Air Act of 1963, expanding on the provisions of the 1955 Air Pollution Control Act.

Although the CAA was not the first law pertaining to air pollution, it is arguably the most important, authorizing the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate the emission of air pollutants from both stationary (e.g. factories, power plants, and industrial facilities) and mobile sources (e.g. cars, trucks, and farm equipment among others). Among several other things, the law orders the EPA to create National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and welfare by setting the safe level of pollutants in the air.

“The majority of air pollution comes from the use and production of energy sources,” said Seyffer. “Burning fossil fuels, for example, releases all kinds of dangerous gases and chemical byproducts into the air.”

These gases and chemicals can cause a variety of diseases affecting our respiratory, endocrine, immune, and nervous systems among others. Carbon emissions in air pollution are also a contributing factor to climate change, which in turn, increases the growth of illness-causing allergens like mold (caused by damp conditions from extreme weather conditions and flooding) and pollen (caused by an extended warm and pollen production season).

Diseases Linked to Poor Outdoor and Indoor Air Quality

The same WHO study in 2014 broke down the variety of diseases and the corresponding percentage of fatalities caused by poor outdoor and indoor air quality

For fatalities caused by outdoor air pollution:

• 40 percent died from ischemic heart disease
• 40 percent from a stroke
• 11 percent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• six percent from lung cancer
• three percent from acute lower respiratory infections

For fatalities caused by indoor air pollution:

• 34 percent died from a stroke
• 26 percent from ischemic heart disease
• 22 percent from COPD
• 12 percent from acute lower respiratory infection in children
• six percent from lung cancer

Perhaps even more disturbing is how these diseases only scratch the surface of the health effects of air pollution. Note how the deaths mentioned above are only related to respiratory illnesses, which are clearly connected to air quality problems. But recent studies show less-obvious links between air pollution and seemingly unrelated diseases like diabetes.

For example, while diabetes is usually associated with obesity and sugar intake, an animal experiment conducted by researchers at Ohio State University in 2009 found a connection between the disease and air pollution. The researchers observed two groups of mice.

• One group was placed in an enclosure with clean, filtered air
• The other was placed in an enclosure with air containing fine particulate matter, but still at acceptable concentrations according to EPA standards.

Each group of mice spent six hours in respective enclosures each day for five days a week over the course of 128 weeks. The research team found that even if both groups of mice consumed the same amount of food, the mice living in polluted air developed characteristics resembling insulin resistance, while the mice exposed to clean air did not.

The Relationship Between Outdoor Air Pollution and HEPA Filter/Air Purifiers

The problem with air pollution and indoor air quality are that most people assume that merely shutting the doors and windows of homes and buildings will be enough to protect them from the polluted outdoor air. This approach, however, completely ignores the fact that the building’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system needs to vent indoor air and draw in “fresh” air from the outside. This process is where commercial HEPA filters and air purifiers play a role.

Moreover, even if we assume your building is sealed from the elements, outside air can still penetrate the interiors through small cracks in the walls, floors, and ceilings of the structure.

This problem doesn’t even include the primary causes of poor indoor air quality:

• Incomplete or inefficient combustion of fuel from lighting, heating, and cooking
• Offgassing by machinery and equipment
• Fumes from building materials and cleaning products

How Do Air Filtration Systems Work?

Air filtration systems use fine sieves or media that filter particles from circulating air. As the air flows in and out of an HVAC unit, the air filter or purifier captures the airborne particles. The finer the sieve used in the filter, the more particles it will capture and remove. More importantly, the filter can trap microscopic particles found in chemical fumes, tobacco smoke, and automobile exhaust among others.

While there are many types of air filters on the market, the accepted benchmark has been set by High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters. A true HEPA filter is designed to trap 99.97 percent of airborne particles down to 0.3 microns in size. A micron, which is equivalent to 1/25,400 of an inch, is the standard unit of measurement for particulate matter (PM).

For context, the filter that comes with your standard air conditioning unit can capture particles down to 10 microns, which are still visible to the naked eye if you were to look closely—think dust, dander, and other similar debris. Anything lower than 10 microns requires a microscope and a high efficiency filter to remove.

Which HEPA Air Filter Should You Get?

Given the known side effects of exposure to polluted air, a HEPA air filter is a must in any area burdened by poor outdoor air quality. But the question of which HEPA filter to get, however, ultimately boils down to your specific circumstances. We recommend asking these questions first.

• What kind of particulate matter am I trying to remove?
• What is the main source of indoor air pollutants?
• How large is the space requiring air filtration?

Remember that some HEPA filters are better than others. If you are interested in learning more about air purifiers and filtration systems by Camfil USA.

 

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Are Commercial Air Filtration Systems Effective at Capturing Vehicle Exhaust?

Camfil Commercial Air Filtration News -In enclosed spaces like underground parking lots and vehicle garages, vehicle exhaust fumes pose a real health and safety risk, hence the need for an efficient commercial air filtration system. These ventilation solutions remove exhaust gases from an enclosed area and bring in fresh air from the outside, ensuring that vehicle emissions don’t linger and cause health problems, or worse, fatalities.

“Nearly a quarter of a century after deeming diesel exhaust ‘probably’ carcinogenic, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has concluded that sufficient evidence now exists that it does indeed cause cancer in humans,” said Camfil USA’s Charlie Seyffer, Manager of Marketing & Technical Materials for commercial air filters and 37-year ASHRAE member and active committee participant. “While much research still needs to be performed on the relationship between diesel exhaust and cancer, one thing is certain: proper air filtration is effective at keeping diesel exhaust particles out of the indoor air is essential.”

But what exactly is it about exhaust fumes that make them so dangerous to human health?

The Dangers of Vehicle Exhaust and Need for Commercial HEPA Filter Air Purifiers

The need for commercial HEPA filter air purifiers in enclosed spaces like car parks, warehouses, and trucking facilities comes from the dangers posed by exhaust fumes. Automobile exhaust, for example, contains carbon monoxide produced by internal combustion engines, gas heaters, furnaces, and manufacturing equipment among others.

When a vehicle is moving and burning fuel efficiently, its engine receives enough oxygen to allow each carbon atom in the burnt fuel to bond with two oxygen atoms, forming harmless carbon dioxide (CO2). But when the engine does not get enough oxygen and burns fuel inefficiently, each carbon atom in the burnt fuel can only bond with one oxygen atom creating carbon monoxide. This typically happens when a vehicle is sitting idle with the engine switched on. Delivery trucks are common sources of vehicle pollution that travel into our buildings.

The accumulation of carbon monoxide happens in underground parking areas and indoor garages due to a lack of ventilation. It is estimated that around 20,000 to 30,000 people in the United States fall ill each year due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Approximately 500 people die from it every year. ¹

Do Commercial HEPA Filters Remove Vehicle Exhaust?

Commercial HEPA filters are just one part of a complete defense against vehicle exhaust fumes. High-efficiency particulate air filters are especially effective at removing particulate matter (PM) found in vehicle exhaust, especially from diesel trucks.

• Automobiles can produce PM directly from their exhaust pipes as a natural byproduct of the fuel combustion process—a common example is the soot that forms around the tailpipes of vehicles.
• Particulate matter can also come from the normal wear and tear on tires and brakes, which can leave dust particles in the air inside an underground car park.  

But what about dangerous gases like carbon monoxide?

Enter Commercial Air Filtration Systems with Adsorbent Media

As mentioned earlier, a HEPA filter is just one part of your defense against vehicle exhaust pollutants. The other big issue is removing the dangerous and often colorless gases that accompany them. This is where commercial air filtration systems using adsorbent medias plays a factor.

While many underground car park facilities have smoke alarms that detect high levels of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and other gas fumes, they don’t actually remove these harmful gases from the air. Molecular filtration systems are the only solution against gases found in jet fumes, diesel fumes, odors associated with equipment running on a gas-powered engine, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and even restroom exhaust.

How Does Adsorbent Media in Air Filters for Air Purification Work?

The filter manufacturer will apply media that either adsorb gases molecules or remove them by a process that includes oxidizing the gases so they can be easily removed by other components of the filter system. Activated carbon can be used for diesel fumes and specific blends of oxidizing agents can be used to address the CO levels consistent with personal vehicle operation.

This oxidizing molecular filtration technology is especially effective at capturing other VOCs and carbon monoxide. In fact, gaseous filtration systems are commonly used in areas with air quality issues such as:

• Airports – to remove jet fuel and kerosene fumes
• Nuclear power plants – to remove traces of xenon, krypton, and iodine
• Pesticide and herbicide facilities – to remove processing emissions
• Food and beverage production facilities – to remove cooking fumes and odors

Choosing Industrial Air Filtration and Ventilation Systems to Remove Vehicle Exhaust

When choosing an air filtration and ventilation system for an enclosed car park or garage, it’s important to consider the size of the enclosed area, the number of vehicles the space accommodates, and the specifications of the air filter and ventilation system. Not all air purifiers are built the same, so it’s important to choose one that’s proven and tested.

To learn more about the benefits of air purifiers for removing vehicle exhaust fumes, click here to go through Camfil USA’s air filter catalog.

 

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Sources:

1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marijkevroomendurning/2013/08/20/vehiclebon-monoxide-a-silent-killer-are-you-safe/#2db85db35603

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