Air purifier: Practical solution to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS)
Have you ever been into a building and feeling extremely uncomfortable? Perhaps you may experience a sudden feeling of nausea, headache, stuffy nose or itchy eyes while you are inside a building. If you have ever experienced those symptoms you are most likely experiencing Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). This syndrome was first identified in 1970s to describe a sudden feeling of discomfort when someone is inside a building that is poorly designed and improperly maintained.
The feeling of discomfort may disappear once the person leaves the building. There are many causes that lead to SBS. This includes poor ventilation and accumulation of toxic pollutants in the building. Example of harmful pollutants are carbon monoxide emitted by automobiles, chemical smells from paint, carpet, cooking gases, and many more. All these harmful gases will not only cause minor irritation when inhaled in low amount, it can also lead to cancer after prolonged exposure. Apart from causes contributed by chemicals, they are also being contributed by biological pathogens.
SBS is especially prevalent in oil buildings because previous architecture does not place much emphasis on the ventilation. Old buildings that are not properly ventilated attracts growth of molds which eventually produces spores. Pollens produced from plants and mites from carpets or other fabric materials will also remain on the stagnant air and contribute to SBS.
If you are experiencing SBS in where you live, it is ideal to move to another place. However, not everyone has the luxury to do so. Therefore, if you still need to stay in the place, an alternate solution is to get yourself an air purifier. Ventilation is very important to improve the air movement to reduce the concentration of harmful gases and also to reduce humidity inside the building.
Reduction of humidity will help restrict growth of mold and also other microorganisms. Hence, it will greatly improve the building condition. Air condition is not good enough to improve the ventilation because of the limited air movement.
Other then dehumidifiying, cleaning the air of allergens and other pollutants is very important. This is where a good air purifier can help. Choosing a suitable air purifier depends on several factors such as the size of the room and whether you just need the air filtered from particles or also require odor removal. You can refer to this shortlist of recommended air purifiers to help in your decision.
On average, each person spends 90% of our time indoors. So if the indoor environment is not healthy, then high chances we will get affected by it. Statistics from World Health Organization showed that 4.3 million people died due to pollution that occurs indoors such as pollution due to cooking using coal, wood or biomass comparing to 3.7 million deaths due to pollution from outdoors.
Prolonged exposure of harmful chemicals and biological pollutants will cause serious health issues such as lung damage, skin disease, and cancer. Therefore, we need to be vigilant in identifying potential risks in our surroundings and take proactive action to solve this problem before it becomes too serious. It will not only improve our physical wellbeing, you will also notice improvement on your emotional and mental health.