Indoor air pollutants can lead to illness, allergies, and overall poor health. With people spending up to 90% of their time indoors and much of it being at work in various facilities, it’s important for businesses to keep their indoor air quality high to keep employees healthy.
Air quality indoors can have higher amounts of pollutants than the air outdoors. This is especially true for industrial or commercial facilities. Even simple offices have been known to have poor indoor air quality. This leads to more sick days and time away from work, which not only affects your productivity, but also the mental well-being of your staff.
There are a few things that your facility managers can do to help improve indoor air quality.
Humidifiers
The dry winter air steals moisture from the human body, meaning employees have dryer skin, chapped lips, and dry eyes. Humidifiers help to keep moisture in the air and reduce this discomfort, as well as the need for overuse of eye drops and lotion!
The flu virus also tends to survive longer in environments with low humidity. Using a humidifier and raising the moisture level in the air can help reduce the longevity of the flu virus in the air and on surfaces, meaning your employees won’t need to take off as much time for health-related reasons.
You can install a humidifier in the HVAC system to help improve indoor air quality across rooms in your facility, or use a portable unit that can be used in specific offices or if you’re team changes worksites often.
Ventilation Fans
Depending on the industry your facility works within, ventilation fans may be a requirement. Even in facilities where they aren’t a requirement, they are a great addition for bringing in fresh, filtered air from outdoors into the facility. They help to improve the energy-efficiency in facilities as well as the HVAC system as a whole doesn’t need to work as hard.
Clean Surfaces
The cleanliness of surfaces in your facility, including floors, tables, shelving, walls, and ceilings, makes a big impact on the indoor air quality. Even with all the right air filters and maintenance, indoor air quality will be poor if surfaces are not properly kept clean.
Using powerful and efficient cleaning equipment with high quality filters is key for keeping surfaces clean and keeping employees healthy. Whether it’s a backpack vac to clean high shelves, an industrial vacuum to keep floors free from dust and debris, or a sweeper scrubber to maintain the outdoors of the facility, this equipment removes allergens, dust, pollen, and mould from surfaces and prevents it from entering the air.
Even when these surfaces don’t have visible dust on them, there can be allergens, mold spores, and bacteria growing that need to be removed by proper cleaning equipment. A HEPA filter in a facility’s cleaning equipment means that the surfaces will be free from these harmful particles and keep them from releasing into the air.
Air Purifiers
Air purifiers are used in addition to regularly-maintained HVAC system and clean air filters. They are designed specifically to get rid of allergens and other airborne pollutants in the rooms they are installed in. While air filters in the HVAC system are there to remove allergens, dust, and pollutants (as well as bacteria and other smaller particles if a HEPA filter is installed), an air purifier works in tandem to keep the indoor air quality as high as possible.
If your facility has unpleasant odors like smoke, using an air purifier with an active carbon filter will absorb and remove these strong smells. Depending on your particular facility or worksite, it may be difficult to install a carbon filter in the HVAC system. An air purifier with one is a simple solution for removing these lingering smells.
Upkeep Outdoor Maintenance
Ensuring the outside of your facility is kept clean and well-maintained has a huge impact on the air quality inside. Every time someone walks into your facility or opens a door, the dirt, leaves, mold spores, dust, and pollen on the floor and walls and in the air enters the facility too. When you keep your building clean on the outside, it minimizes the amount of harmful particles that will be on surfaces and in the air inside.
Learn more about the importance of upkeeping outdoor maintenance and the impact it has on your business.
Janitized provides aftermarket filters for vacuum cleaners, sweepers, scrubbers, restoration equipment, and more that help contribute to clean surfaces inside and outside of your facility. There are a number of factors that contribute to indoor air quality in a facility and it’s important that all of these are maintained in order to keep employees healthy.
Visit our catalogue to learn more about the filters we offer or get more information about becoming a distributor with the Janitized network.
