As business owners, we are responsible for the environment of our workplace. Daily operations and productivity depend on a healthy workforce, but too often this is not the case. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), poor indoor air quality (IAQ) has been linked to headaches, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, and lungs.
There are many factors that affect the IAQ. They include poor ventilation (lack of outside air), problems controlling temperature, humidity, as well as renovations and other activities that can affect the fresh air that enters the building. In some cases, pollutants such as construction or renovation dust, mold, cleaning products, pesticides, or other chemicals in the air can cause a poor IAQ.
As if that weren’t enough, certain diseases like asthma have been linked to specific air pollutants or indoor environments. Also, substances like asbestos and radon do not cause immediate symptoms, but can cause cancer after many years of exposure.
Poor indoor air quality has a dramatic impact on health and the economy
Poor indoor air quality is a major health problem. exist 4.5 million Annual emergency room visits for environmentally sensitive/sensitive illnesses. These emergency room treatments account for more $20 billion in health care costs each year in the US And that doesn’t even include an employee’s lost wages or an employer’s lost productivity.
When you add up the cost of medical care, lost wages, and lost productivity, the annual cost of environmental illness is greater than the EPA and OSHA budgets. set. This is more than we spend as a nation for these agencies to regulate and monitor work environments!
To do? First, look at the symptoms
People who work in buildings with a poor IAQ may notice musty or unpleasant odors or feel that the building is hot and stuffy. There are also the symptoms mentioned above such as headaches, fatigue, irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, but also others such as fever and shortness of breath.
Optimizing IAQ is the only real answer, but how?
But not all exposures cause symptoms, so there’s no substitute for good building management. This brings us to point two.
The employer needs to update the company’s HVAC system. You should consider installing an automatic fan controller. As the name suggests, modern “controllers” are revolutionizing the HVAC industry by controlling or linking every aspect of the HVAC system (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) for maximum efficiency. This efficiency is imperative as you can’t fix OAQ (outdoor air quality) but one they can optimize indoor air quality.
Without proper ventilation, defined as the exchange of indoor air and outdoor air, pollutants such as radon, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and other contaminants can build up. indoors, leading to potentially serious health problems, such as those listed earlier in this article. This can be especially true in small commercial businesses that have a lot of harmful chemicals in the air. A small nail salon would be just one example.
How do they work? SMART ventilation controllers connect to the ductwork system and use indoor and outdoor sensors to automatically turn off the air conditioner when humidity is low and temperatures are comfortable, drawing fresh air indoors, while expelling stale air with its pollutants from the outside. Exterior. Unlike older indoor air ventilation systems such as smoke extractors in bars and ASHRE fans in homes and small businesses, SMART ventilation controllers only discharge indoor air with outdoor air when outdoor air quality (OAQ) is met. is better than IAQ. Essentially, with a SMART ventilation controller, IAQ is addressed 24/7.
Summary
It is true that SMART ventilation controllers do not come cheap. There are other less expensive upgrades that will help improve IAQ, such as changing air conditioner filters regularly and other options described in other articles in this series.
However, when you consider the financial drain poor indoor air quality is taking on the economy and people’s health, a state-of-the-art SMART ventilation controller is an investment that can be expected to pay dividends over time. Also, isn’t your employees’ health worth it?