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- "Everyone shall have the right to live in a healthy environment."
- But today, people live in such a contaminated environment that it is almost impossible to properly exercise that right.
Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality
Major Indoor Air Pollutants, Sources and Their Effects on Humans | ||
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Pollutant | Source | Effect to the human body |
Dust | Indoor inflow of dust in the air, room floor dust, cigarette ashes | Silicosis, pneumoconiosis, ansilicosis, et cetera |
Cigarette smoke | Cigarette, cheroot | Headache, fatigue, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, lung cancer |
Combustion gases (CO, NO2, SO2, etc.) | Various heater (briquettes, gas, oil), fireplace, fuel combustion, gas stove, etc. | Chronic lung disease, airway resistance growth, effects on the central nervous system |
Radon | Concrete, soil, groundwater, granite | Lung cancer, etc. |
Formaldehyde | Various plywood, boards, furniture, insulation, deodorants, cigarette smoke, cosmetics, fabrics, lab, etc. | Irritation signs in eyes, nose, and throat, dizziness, cough, diarrhea, skin diseases, emotional disorders, memory loss, etc. |
Asbestos | Insulation, insulator, asbestos tile, heat radiating material | Acropathy, respiratory disease, asbestosis, lung cancer |
Microbial substances (fungi, bacteria, pollen) |
Humidifiers, air conditioners, refrigerators, pets, laundry, waxes, fragrances, etc. | Fatigue, mental confusion, headaches, nausea, dizziness, central nervous control |
Organic solvent(aldehydes, ketones, etc.) | Paints, adhesives, spray, combustion processes, laundry, waxes, fragrances, etc. | Fatigue, mental confusion, headaches, nausea, dizziness, central nervous control |
Stink | Various stink sources | Loss of appetite, vomiting, insomnia, allergies, mental neurosis etc. |
Electromagnetic | Various electronic products | Loss of appetite, loss of hormone, leukemia, etc. |
The Indoor Air Quality: Is it Safe?(Based on the booklet published by the U.S. EPA/Office of Air and Radiation, EPA 402-K-93-007)
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- 01. Fresh Air: Can It Be More Important Than Food?
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Elements of health = Fresh air + water + nutrition + exercise
Air and water play an important role as essential elements for the health of all animals and plants. In today’s lifestyle, we see people take great care in terms of drinking water, either buying bottled water or using water purifiers. So we pay very much attention to what we drink, trying to have as clean water as possible; on the other hand, it will be interesting to see how much attention we pay to the air we breathe at all times, and what kind of solutions we have for air-related problems. In particular, the indoor air requires us to practice frequent ventilation, but our current systems pose a dilemma for such need: since we are concerned about potential energy loss in our air conditioning or heating, it is difficult for us to practice the adequate ventilation.
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- 02. Modern People and Indoor Air
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Modern people spend more than two-thirds of their time indoors.
Have you ever thought, ‘I wish I was living in the country side where there’s fresh air everywhere,’ or ‘Should I consider buying clean air bottled from unpolluted mountain areas?’ People living in the city today normally sleep in apartment buildings or family houses, and commute by public transportation like bus or subways; then they go on working in an office, meeting people and working with colleagues indoors. In other words, they spend most of their whole day indoors. This is exactly where the problem is: recently, scientists have shown that the indoor air in houses and buildings can be much more contaminated than the outdoor air of big industrial cities. And we do feel the indoor pollution on a firsthand basis as we go on living.
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- 03. Indoor Air Quality in Big Cities: Is It Really Cleaner Than the Outdoor Air Quality?
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Warning! Homes exude chemicals, and the pollution created by them is much more serious than the pollution caused by any factory materials.
Industrialization has aggravated the air pollution in industrial and big cities. But is the outdoor air necessarily more polluted than the indoor air? In general, the air is circulated by air temperature differences between indoors and outdoors and by wind, continuing natural or self purification.
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- 04. What Are the Sources of Indoor Air Pollution?
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In our homes and offices, there are countless pollutant sources. These include home appliances, articles for hobby activities, heating products, cars, building materials, cement, cigarette smoke, radon, formaldehyde, furniture, biological pollutants, carbon monoxide, organic gases, asbestos, lead, the gases and smell of food from cooking, food decomposition, and dusts arising from everyday life.
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- 05. What Are the Effects of Polluted Indoor Air and Inadequate Ventilation on People?
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In our homes and offices, there are countless pollutant sources. These include home appliances, articles for hobby activities, heating products, cars, building materials, cement, cigarette smoke, radon, formaldehyde, furniture, biological pollutants, carbon monoxide, organic gases, asbestos, lead, the gases and smell of food from cooking, food decomposition, and dusts arising from everyday life.
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- - Sick Building Syndome
- It is one of the most common modern diseases caused by indoor air pollution, usually suffered by people who work inside a building. When people have the sick building syndrome, they show one or more of the following symptoms:
1. Dryness of the nose, eyes and throat, pain, sneeze, nasal congestion.
2. Fatigue or lethargy, headache, dizziness, nausea, irritability and forgetfulness.
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- - What Are the Diseases Caused by Indoor Air Pollution?
- 1. On a short-term, indoor air pollutants can cause such diseases as asthma, hypersensitivity, acute pneumonia, and humidifier fever.
2. On a longer term, repeated exposure can cause such diseases as emphysema, malignant tumor, respiratory diseases, cardiac diseases and cancer, all of which are very lethal to humans.
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- 06. Why Can’t We Get Rid of the Sources of Indoor Air Pollution?
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Inadequate ventilation: This resulted from the changes in national energy policy as the oil crises arose in the 1970s and 1980s. Building structures have been made increasingly closed at home and office to save energy costs, and this is what caused the inadequate ventilation.
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- - General Problems of Mechanical Ventilation in Design and Operation
- 1. The design itself allows very little infiltration of outdoor air.
2. For the sake of energy saving, the ventilation systems are only partially operated or not operated at all.
3. Improperly placed outdoor air intakes bring in contaminated gases from the outside.
4. Inadequate maintenance of ventilation systems can be a source of indoor pollution by spreading bacteria, moles, and viruses multiplied in cooling towers, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, air conditioners, or the inside surfaces of ventilation duct work.
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