Allergy & Asthma Alert or, How Long Can You Hold Your Breath? - Aug. 1999

Westfield: Government agencies such as the EPA have defined Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) as the number one environmental health problem facing Americans today. Two out of every five Americans suffer from allergies, and the epidemic rate of asthma today among children has triggered a rapidly growing awareness that homes and schools -- as well as the traditional workplace environment -- are the major contributors to this considerable health threat.

According to a report in Preventitive Medicine journal by a University of Connecticut medical student, Kenneth R. Spaeth, "Americans are exposed to numerous pollutants, from heavy metals to volatile organic compounds" inside their homes. Because the average person spends about 80% - 90% of their time indoors, they are constantly exposed to such pollutants. Mr. Spaeth writes that, in studies sponsored by the EPA, "the general population is exposed to unexpectedly high levels of carcinogenic substances in their homes .... 5 to 70 times the highest outdoor levels" with some toxin levels "greater than the levels that qualify as a chemical waste site for Superfund status." Hello!!

The difficulty largely stems from the fact that the energy crisis of fifteen years ago caused homes and buildings to become ever more tightly insulated -- trapping inside, as a result, a host of damaging pollutants. With the current statistics showing that most indoor air is at least five to ten times more polluted than the outdoor environment, the need is to find a way to eradicate or control these indoor pollutants. Outside, the forces of Nature -- such as the activity of the sun, wind and rain -- work extremely well to cleanse the environment (who has not experienced the clean, fresh environment outdoors after a thunderstorm?); while, inside, the bottled-up environment lacks any of these forces.

Methods of dealing with IAQ-related allergies and asthma have traditionally involved a two-pronged approach. First, simple remedies such as removing allergen-trapping carpets, pets (not likely!), stuffed animals, dried flowers and installing dehumidifiers in the home can help; however, what are people to do in the office environment where windows are frequently sealed shut and the only available air is provided by HVAC (Heating-Ventilating-Air-Conditioning) systems?

The second approach has been to either install better filtration mechanisms in HVAC systems or to implement localized, room filter units. However, this method has two serious limitations that, in most situations, do not result in any substantial improvement in IAQ.

To understand this, it is necessary to understand the nature of IAQ problems. First, the indoor air contains a miasma of pollutants such as bacteria, dust mite feces and body parts, pollens, molds, bacteria, chemical gases, emissions from cooking and heating devices, animal dander if pets are present, and much else. Second hand cigarette smoke is now recognized in its initial form to contain over thirty chemical pollutants alone! In addition to the irritating particles contained in smoke, once the primary chemicals begin to re-combine in the atmosphere, a possible 3,000+ chemical variations can be formed. Talk about toxic!

Second, it is virtually impossible to cause the air anywhere other than in the immediate vicinity of a filter mechanism -- whether a localized, room filter device or a return duct on an HVAC system -- to be drawn to the filter -- the air further away from the filter never actually gets to the filter. The current estimates are that only about 30% of the indoor air actually makes its way to the filter in an average indoor environment.

Third, most of the particles floating in the air are simply too small to be filtered by conventional means. The best filtration media provided for most, localized filtering devices is called HEPA, an acronym for High Efficiency Particle Arresting. A true HEPA filter (as differentiating from the marketing language/hype of "Hepa-type") will provide 99.97% filtration down to a .3 (point 3) micron size. This is very tiny! -- the average human hair is about 100 microns thick! However, most of the particles -- as much as 95% of them -- tens and hundreds of millions of particles by actual count -- floating in room air are smaller than this size and will not be effectively removed by such filters! Such particles, through a natural phenomenon called the Browning Effect, will remain airborn indefinitely until your next breath when you breathe them in!

The mischief today is being done by these smaller allergens, and the scientific and medical communities have now realized that it is these tiny allergens that slip right by the body's upper respiratory defense mechanisms and, drawn deep into the lungs, lodge in the lung sacs. It now becomes a major effort for the body to remove them and, in many instances, the pollutants are so small they are actually transferred directly into the bloodstream. No wonder that the allergy and asthma problems are such an big health threat!

However, there is hope! The IAQ industry is now producing Air Purifiers that work indoors just as Nature works outdoors. Such Air Purifiers ignore the traditional limitations of filtering devices and clean the air through natural principles. By harnessing the age-old forces of both ionization and oxidation, methods have been perfected whereby a single, compact Air Purifier can now electronically duplicate the activity of a thunderstorm and effectively purify an indoor environment. Such units provide large area ionization (up to 60 feet away from the purifier) to "sweep" the air and cause these tiny, harmful allergens to settle out. As a companion process, the oxidation results in reduction or elimination of the same types of allergens. The inside environment then becomes "thunderstorm fresh", and as common sense tells us, fresh, clean air -- whether in the den or bedroom, or in the mountains of Switzerland -- provides incomparable health benefits to us all including the allergy and asthma sufferer.

It should be noted, as well, that the government -- OSHA in particular -- is now starting to examine the health threats posed by the traditional vacuum cleaner. Very few vacuums -- irrespective of marketing claims -- will adequately contain the millions of pollutants being drawn into the vacuum from the carpet and other indoor surfaces. The latest scientific tests indicate that the average vacuum is emitting tens of millions of particles per minute into the air as they operate! Some very good quality vacuums employing air-tight housings with totally sealed HEPA systems will, however, actually retain all particles down to bacteria size -- a tremendous benefit.

For questions on IAQ and related concerns, please contact The Eardly T. Petersen Company at 224 Elmer Street in Westfield. They may called at 908-232-5723 (closed Wednesdays), or, contacted by e-mail at sales@etpetersen.com.