Are you one of many office workers considering your own personal office air purifier as a means to combat office air pollution and resulting health problems?
Is your office air at stale and irritating? Do you experience an increase in your allergy symptoms or nasal and eye irritation, even drowsiness and mental fog? You may be a victim of Sick Building Syndrome.
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Sick Building Syndrome, a term first used in the 1970s, continues to affect office workers now as much as ever. Due to tighter buildings and a failure to recognize the importance of office building indoor air quality, health problems among office workers are on the rise.
While modern building codes require buildings to supply adequate clean air, in actual practice these are often circumvented. Office air intake may be limited to reduce power consumption, but this reduces the available fresh air. Air handling systems may be turned off at night or on weekends to save money, allowing office air pollution to build up.
Activities within the building such as cleaning, the use of aerosols and so-called air fresheners, perfumes and other personal care products, as well as office equipment and building materials can contribute an office air pollution load greater than ventilation systems can remove.
Is there anything you can do to improve your office indoor air quality? While better source control and ventilation would go a long way toward improving office building indoor air quality, you personally may not have any control over these issues. (For a list of seventeen suggestions to reduce office air pollution see Control Measures That Help Office Air Purification at bottom of the page).
One option you may wish to consider is investing in your own personal office air purifier.
One of the most important factors in keeping your office a healthy and pleasant place to work is indoor air free of health robbing contaminants. An office air purifier can help to remove those contaminants.
If you are experiencing irritation of the eyes, skin, nose and throat, mental fatigue, headaches, a stuffy nose, and other flu-like symptoms on a regular basis at work then poor air quality is probably to blame. Good quality air is air that can be breathed continuously without suffering these health effects.
Choosing the best office air purifier to provide this continuous supply of good quality air requires that you understand the pollutants you face and which of air purifier technology best removes them.
Requirements of an Office Air Cleaner
While respirable particles under 10 microns are always a matter of concern, the typical office workers health is affected most by two other contaminant sources.
These are biological (fungi, molds, bacteria, viruses, and allergens like pollen and cat dander brought in from outdoor sources) and chemical pollutants (fumes from cleaning products, furniture, carpets, paint, solvents, office supplies and equipment, personal products of workers, and manufacturing activities in adjoining areas). Both types of pollutants have the ability to irritate tissues and cause allergic reactions or infections.
Biological contaminants respond best to source control, however an office air purifier can help to reduce them. Since biological contaminants are particulate in nature, any air purifier chosen to control them must be able to deal effectively with extremely small particles.
This is best achieved with a HEPA media based office air cleaner.
Why Reject an Ionic Office Air Cleaner?
Though popular and heavily advertised, ionic style electrostatic precipitators should not be considered due to their many disadvantages.
These include low collection efficiency and rapid reduction in collection efficiency as the plates load with particles. In as few as three days, ionic cleaners can be reduced to less than 20% collection efficiency with the most significant reduction occurring with the smallest particle sizes, the very ones you wish to control.
Another big disadvantage is ozone production. Ozone is itself an irritant and lung-damaging chemical with the added effect of increasing sensitivities to other allergens and irritants.
Finally, ionic air purifiers have no effect on chemical pollutants at all, making them unsuitable to control some of the most significant health threats in your office air. If you want a truly effective office air purifier you should remove ionic type air cleaners from consideration.
Why is a HEPA Office Air Cleaner a Better Choice?
A HEPA media based office air purifier will remove 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 micron. This is adequate for pollens, most dander, fungus, mold spores, and some of the largest bacteria.
A HEPA filter will also demonstrate some collection efficiency in particle sizes below 0.3 micron and thus trap smaller bacteria and even viruses. However, without tested ratings in these smaller particles it isnt possible to know the effectiveness any given air purifier may demonstrate.
A superior testing method does exist and is used to determine HEPA efficiencies in these smallest of particles. It is known as EN1822 (A European filter performance standard). It tests an air purifiers effectiveness at 0.16 micron, known as the Most Penetrating Particle Size (MPPS for short) and below. At this level of purification, bacteria and viruses are much more effectively removed.
The first manufacturer to meet this standard for a home and office air purifier was IQAir. The Allerair AirMedic also meets the standard of an EN1822 certified filter, removing 99% of particles as small as 0.01 micron and so being effective against bacteria and viruses.
Other air purifiers are available that sterilize bacteria, viruses and molds by exposing them to ultraviolet light as they pass through the HEPA filter. This either kills them or renders them unable to reproduce and thus cause infection.
Your best office air purifier will be a true medical grade HEPA based air cleaner. Adding a UV sterilizing option is very desirable as well as adequate activated carbon chemical control as discussed next.
An Office Air Purifier for Chemical Control
Every office has a variety of chemical contaminants, which can accumulate to high levels and affect your health.
Carbon monoxide from vehicle exhaust can be sucked into air intakes and circulated to all parts of the building. Photocopiers and other electrical equipment can produce ozone. Walls, carpets and furniture can emit volatile organic compounds such as formaldehyde. Perfumes and personal care products can expose office occupants to numerous chemicals. In an effort to improve stale and poor smelling air, aerosol air fresheners and other fragrances may be used that simply mask the problem while adding their own chemical load to the air. Photocopier toner or cigarette ash particles can become airborne and inhaled.
An office air purifier must be able to remove this broad range of office air pollution.
The only effective means of removing a wide variety of chemicals is through the use of activated carbon. This requires more than the token few ounces that are found in the carbon impregnated pads used in many air purifiers.
Activated carbon can adsorb up to 60% of its weight in airborne chemicals. To do this, sufficient dwell time, or the time the air spends in contact with the carbon, must be provided. This is achieved only in those air purifiers that use many pounds of activated carbon. Thus the ideal office air purifier will be one that contains a large block of activated carbon in addition to a HEPA filter.
Office air purifiers that meet the above criteria and which you may wish to consider are IQAir, Allerair, Austin Air, and Blueair. Each has models that offer excellent HEPA grade filtration, pounds of activated carbon and UV sterilizer options.
Would you like to know more about the purifiers I consider to be among the best office air cleaners?
Control Measures That Help Office Air Purification
In addition to investing in an office air purifier you may wish to consider the following control measures:
- Be aware of the symptoms of SBS, such as a persistent cough or headache.
- Find out how your building’s ventilation system works. Where are the office air intakes located? re they near an outside source of pollution?
- If your staff is experiencing symptoms of poor office air quality, check to see if there are any sources of contamination to the building’s ventilation system. Volatile chemicals, automobile exhaust from parking lots, or cigarette smoke can be picked up by the air intakes and circulated throughout the building.
- If your office adjoins a manufacturing area, be aware of contaminants from that source.
- Make sure the building’s ventilation system is cleaned regularly and kept in proper working order even if you aren’t experiencing any obvious problems – you may find that it will improve productivity and well being.
- Don’t turn off the ventilation system at night or on weekends. The additional cost is small compared to the lowered productivity and increased absenteeism caused by poor indoor air quality.
- Take the ventilation system design into account when making room for new employees or rearranging the office. Adding heat-generating equipment, such as photocopiers, may also affect air quality. The ventilation system may need to be modified to incorporate the changes.
- Don’t block air intakes or diffusers with furniture or other equipment that will prevent air circulation. Workstations should not be placed close to an air diffuser.
- Keep office temperature in the low to mid-70s F. Relative humidity should not exceed 60 to 70 per cent.
- Eliminate air contaminants at the source.
- Keep lids on containers of solvents or use non-solvent based products.
- Employees who smoke should do so outdoors away from entrances.
- Photocopiers should be in a separate room, and ideally vented to the outdoors.
- Disinfect dehumidifier trays regularly to prevent mold growth.
- Choose plants such as cacti that like dry soil conditions. Potted plants, while touted to improve indoor air quality, do not remove much in the way of pollution. They do add to the biological pollution due to mold and fungi growth in the soil they are planted in.
- Consider having your office air quality tested by a professional ventilation engineer or an industrial hygienist.
- When planning a move to another floor or building, talk to other people who have worked there. Have there been any problems with air quality?