Are You Sealed in with Polluted Air?
These days, when you think about Air Pollution you are probably thinking about the wrong areas. If you are thinking about smog or smoke outside, take a moment to consider the air you breathe inside as well.
Over the last few years air quality outdoors has been monitored and improved thanks to legislation like the Clean Air Act. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the air we breathe in office buildings.
Joseph Allen, of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program even goes so far as to say that “Indoor concentrations of many pollutants can be higher than outdoors,” One driving force behind this trend, is surprisingly the proliferation of Green Buildings. Building use 40% of the energy in the United States, so the rise in a more self-contained building that save energy by recycling air instead of constantly bringing in and cooling new air is a definite benefit for the environment overall, but can lead to decreased Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in the meantime.
The Agenda recently reported on how modern buildings can be filled with chemicals and gases that cause health problems, including but not limited to carbon monoxide, ozone, particulates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like formaldehyde and benzene!
They continue their report to mention that modern buildings can actually promote health. This increase in health can even be linked to better employee productivity and a better bottom line. Workers sick of cold air blowing on them may be blocking vents or turning off AC systems, leading to Carbon Dioxide buildups in buildings as well.
In order to increase indoor Air Quality, The Agenda advocates a variety of solutions including active monitoring and complete redesigns of how we ventilate modern buildings. Here at Comfort First Products, we thrive on helping companies with immediate solutions to their indoor quality and draft problems.
Our Comfort First Filtered Diffuser allows for rapid installation and filtering up to MERV 14 standards, better than demanded by antiquated regulations for office buildings and perfect for keeping your employees safe, happy and healthy. These filters can help target and remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like formaldehyde and benzene.
You can read the full report on the Agenda online here, or feel free to call us on 800-804-3366 and we would be happy to talk to you about improving your IAQ today!