From asthma to allergies, poor indoor air quality contributes to a growing health risk.
Most Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors. Airtight construction, designed to improve energy efficiency, permits less fresh air to enter the home, so indoor air often contains much higher concentrations of hazardous pollutants than outdoor air (average 7-10 times worse). One out of three homes have someone who suffers from allergies or asthma, and accepted research confirms that indoor air pollutants trigger asthma attacks, allergic reactions and contribute to other respiratory conditions, cancer and premature death.
Indoor Air Quality is a characterization of pollution levels within an entire dwelling or interior space. Pollution levels inside can be up to 100 times the levels outside, on average 7-10 times worse (EPA). The reason is simple: Homes and buildings have been built to be more energy efficient since the 1970’s energy-crisis, leading to poor ventilation indoors. Couple that with the fact that people average 90% of their time indoors and the correlation between increases in respiratory disease rate since 1980 becomes too much to ignore. 99% of the suspended airborne particles are too small to see (<less that 10 micron), 98% are <1micron in size; yet small enough to be respired (breathed into the lungs) which cause damage and disease.
These “invisible” Respireable Small Particles (RSPs) are the primary “Health Risk culprit” (FDA). Examples of these particles include: ETS (environmental tobacco smoke), bacteria, fungi, pollens, pet dander and plant spores. It is widely documented that RSPs and poor IAQ cause and contribute to the development of chronic respiratory disease such as asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, bronchitis and other respiratory tract infections. More than 60 million Americans suffer medically from such conditions. Lung disease claims over 335,000 lives per year in America. The per capita rate of asthma patients has doubled since 1980.
The problem: How do you remove the RSP from your environment?
Indoor Air Quality is an important health consideration, and RSPs are the specific concern and known risk. Recent studies have shown that RSPs can be effectively removed from dwellings using the appropriate strategy and technology (EPA). The strategy includes use of the internal HVAC system, which circulates 100% of the air, in conjunction with in-duct Electronic Air Cleaner (EAC) technology. Independant experts and consumer watch-dogs have found that the EAC was the only technology with the potential to separate and remove the RSPs from the air stream. Such systems process 100% of the air being recirculated by the HVAC whole-house system. The top performing systems separated and collected 81%-96% of RSPs, tested out-of-the-box, and were not initially tested over a prolonged period. No other technology, nor practical filter type was effective at removing sub-micron sized particles. In addition, the EAC technology was rated the highest for removal of both large and small particles (dust and smoke).
