Indoor Air Quality

What is Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)?
Indoor air quality, or IAQ, describes how inside air can affect a person’ s health, comfort and ability to work. It can include temperature, humidity, lack of outside air (aka ventilation), mold from water damage or exposure to other chemicals. Currently, OSHA has no IAQ standards, but it does provide guidelines about the most common IAQ workplace complaints.

What’ s in Your Air?

RADON: radioactive gas from soil that can cause lung cancer

SECONDHAND SMOKE: comes from burning tobacco products and can cause cancer

CARBON MONOXIDE: colorless/odorless gas causes headaches, nausea and even death

NITROGEN DIOXIDE: causes eye, nose and throat infection

VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOCs): chemicals found in paints, cleaning supplies, waxes, building materials, insect repellents, air fresheners, etc some can cause cancer some can cause eye, nose, throat irritation and nausea

ASTHMA TRIGGERS: mold, dust mites, pet dander and smoke coughing, tightness of the chest, breathing/respiratory problems

MOLD: living things that produce spores spores that grow into mold - inhaling/touching can cause hay-fever type symptoms 

Tips for Controlling Indoor Air Pollutants

-Test for radon. Fix it if there is a problem
-Reduce asthma triggers (dust, pollen, pet dander, etc). A great way to reduce levels is with an air purifier
-Do not let people smoke indoors reduce contact with smokers
-Keep house and surfaces clean and dry to prevent mold growth
-Ventilate house well when using products that cause/produce pollutants
-Install a carbon monoxide detector in your home make sure batteries work if you already have one

Humidification

Why Use a Humidifier?

5.  Dry air can dry out skin, hair, lips, throat, etc. This causes irritation until moisture is restored.

6.  Reduces damage to wooden items in the home. Wooden furniture can become damaged due to dry air, wooden floors can get creaky and instruments can become out of tune. Even wallpaper can begin to peel!

7. Proper humidity levels help to reduce the number of nose bleeds some people are prone to in the dry, winter months. 

What is Silver Clean™ Technology?

A form of micro-silver crystal technology, which has been embedded in the water tank as a fungi-static agent to fight the growth of mold and mildew on the surface of the tank. Silver's antibacterial powers are being applied in a variety of household and textile products and applications.

Air Purification

Why Use an Air Purifier?

Top Reasons for Using an Air Purifier:

Helps Prevent You From Breathing Unwanted Airborne Particles
These unwanted particles include: mold spores, pet dander, dust, etc.

Help Prevent Exposure to Allergens
Everyone’ s immune system produces antibodies to fight infection. An allergic person’ s system produces an allergy antibody in response to allergens, these include: pollens (trees, grass, plants and flowers), animal dander, dead skin cells, mold, mildew, fungi, dust, etc.

Helps Save Time Cleaning
Dust can be a nuisance to clean up. It accumulates on shelves, TVs, and many other surfaces of your home. An air purifier will help eliminate the need to dust as often.

Help Reduce Unpleasant Kitchen Odors
Burn last night’ s dinner? Chop an onion that brought tears to your eyes? Help reduce the strength of odors from cooking by running an air purifier.

Help Reduce All Those Other Unpleasant Odors
Have a friend or relative that smokes? Or a playful puppy that likes to make a mess? An air purifier will help reduce odors from smoke, pets and more.

Help Prevent the Spread of Airborne Bacteria
Thanks to UV/UV-C light technology germguardian® air purifiers help kill over 99.9% of airborne bacteria.

Types of Air Purification

Areas to consider when purchasing an air purifier will be the size of the room, the level of filtration you desire and other benefits you would like to consider such as germ or odor control.

Room Size
Small rooms, often below 100 sq. ft. may only require a table top or mini tower style air purifier to circulate the air. Medium rooms that range between 100 sq. ft. and 170 sq. ft. will typically need a floor model that has a larger filter to effectively process the air in the room.Large rooms, often over 170 sq. ft. will require a full size tower or box style unit.

Filter Technology

• Activated Carbon filters tackle odor problems by absorbing odor molecules circulating within the home.
• Hepa Type (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter is a pleated mechanical filter that traps airborne particles as they pass through an air purifier. A HEPA type filter is captures up to 95% of particles.
• True HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter is a pleated mechanical filter that traps airborne particles as they pass through an air purifier. By government standards, a HEPA filter is rated to remove 99.97% of all particles that are 0.3 microns in size or larger as the air passes through it. A micron, also known as a micrometer is one millionth of a meter. As a reference point a human hair is approximately 60 microns in diameter and a grain of pollen is 5 microns.

What is UV-C/UV Technology?

The Power of UV-C Light Technology

What is UV-C? UV-C is part of the ultraviolet light spectrum that is filtered out by the earth’ s atmosphere. The “ C” stands for the particular frequency of UV light that kills germs. Is UV-C harmful? Prolonged exposure (ie eight or more hours) to UV-C light can cause eye irritations. Is this new technology? No. UV-C has been used for over 100 years in various applications to kill germs on surfaces, in the air and in the water. UV-C has been proven to kill up to 99.9% of germs. Many hospitals use UV-C to sanitize. Why is my indoor air so dirty? The warmth and moisture found in the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems of households and office buildings make the perfect breeding ground for airborne molds, microorganisms and bacteria. These HVAC systems also provide an ideal way to circulate viruses and germs around an entire office building or home in a relatively short time. It is no wonder that each year five to twenty percent of the entire U.S. population develops influenza. This is part of the reason why having a room air purifier is so important.

Thanks to emerging technology the power of UV-C has been harnessed and is now available for personal use. Recently there have been a number of applications of UV-C technology on products in the home sanitization market. Some of the most successful and effective uses of UV-C include: air sanitizers, handheld UV wands, toothbrush sanitizers, HEPA Air Purifiers and floor care, vacuum cleaners in particular.

How Does UV-C Work?

Why is UV-C so effective at destroying germs? UV-C light is highly effective at penetrating thin-walled germs like viruses and bacteria. The light alters the genetic structure of the germ and they die. UV-C light is not visible to the unaided eye due to its location on the electromagnetic spectrum. But just because it cannot be seen doesn’ t mean it can’ t put up one tough fight against germs, bacteria, viruses and mold. Thanks to its germicidal wavelength (AKA frequency), UV-C is ideally located in the spectrum that best inactivates microorganisms and viral air contaminants. When a virus or microorganism comes in contact with UV-C its nucleus is penetrated, and its DNA is irreparably damaged, which results in death or the inability to reproduce, as well as the spread of unwanted germs! By applying UV-C light we are able to do more than just put up a blockade we are able to destroy the source of the problem.

Check Out Some of the Dirtiest Places

Location: Bathroom The Culprit: Toilet What Could Be Lurking There: Rotavirus (one of the most common causes of severe diarrhea among children) Even if you aren’ t using a public restroom, just how clean do you think that toilet you’ re about to take a seat on is? It is a toilet afterall.

Location: Hotel Room The Culprit:: Bedding What Could Be Lurking There: Rhinovirus (the cause of one third of all colds, and estimated cause of 30-50% of the time from work by adults) How many people do you think have slept in that bed before you? And what viruses, germs and bacteria have they left behind for you to share the bed with?

Location: Kitchen The Culprit: Cutting Board and Utensils What Could Be Lurking There: Rhinovirus (the cause of one third of all colds, and estimated cause of 30-50% of the time from work by adults) Salmonella* (Food preparation areas in your kitchen can provide the ideal breeding ground for this gastrointestinal infection-causing bacteria) The perfect breeding ground for E.coli and Salmonella. Don’ t let that delicious meal you just prepared be your ticket to an awful evening in the bathroom! *StopGerms.org. Alliance for Consumer Education. 2008, http://stopgerms.org.