Cleaner IAQ

Today's increasing health concerns about allergies and asthma sufferers make it vital that cleaning and facility managers maintain pollution-free work sites.

Even dust has been branded an "occupational hazard" by some environmental experts.

No matter how clean you believe your facility to be, you're actually surrounded by dust. Along with pollen, mold and other inhalants, it can trigger a number of respiratory illnesses, including bronchial asthma, which some estimates say affects 6 percent of the U.S. population.

Dust mites, those microscopic-sized insects existing in most dust particles, thrive on the dander produced by human skin and are a major factor that triggers an immune response in people who are clinically sensitive to dust.

How can your cleaning workers get rid of dust that exists everywhere?

• Clean the work areas of allergen-sensitive individuals when they aren't around.
  
• Avoid trapping dust in corners by moving furniture to the center of the room and first cleaning the floors on the perimeter. * Use a soft, damp rag to wipe moldings, light fixtures, shelves, window frames and the tops of doors and windows.
  
• Don't use dust mops, mops or brooms on the floors; they'll scatter dust particles into the air. ' Avoid commercial dusting oils or other fume-producing chemicals.
  
• Open the windows to breeze away the dust raised, especially if your cleaning workers are using a vacuum that lacks effective filtration.
  

An effective vacuum cleaner can help keep dust to a minimum.

But vacuum cleaners are a paradox. They're the most effective device for removing dust, yet most of them pollute the indoor air by blowing out the smaller particles through the fitters or bags.

Most vacuum companies that publicize their machines' high filtration actually are quoting a specification made by the filter manufacturer. Their claims don't consider that air can still escape the vacuum through leaks in the machine or bags. John Zhang, a mechanical engineer specializing in particle technology with the 3M Co., St. Paul, MN, says a vacuum using electrostatically charged fibrous media with high-charge density captures lots of dust with minimum airflow resistance.

"Dust mites, pollens, mold spores and any other particles that are less than 10 microns in size are inhalable," says Zhang. "But electrostatic filtration is most effective at removing those particles. Because this method of filtration has an open structure, not only is the air flow cleaned but the vacuum's machinery also performs well."

Dust-sensitive patients "will have much less exposure to airborne allergens this way," Zhang maintains. "For example, when paper bags in an ordinary vacuum cleaner are used, a large amount of the airborne micron-size allergens escape through the pores of the bag. Old-fashioned vacuum cleaners are only 25 percent efficient in trapping dust particles; the particles are forced into being airborne and become harmful allergens for the 18 million Americans who suffer from asthma."

Electrostatic filtration used by some vacuum manufacturers "markedly" reduces the allergens escaping into the air, Zhang says. "With other machines using ordinary paper bags, there is a large amount of penetration through the bag with the fine dust particles returning to the room air."

He notes that a high filtration system also eliminates the need to dust after vacuuming.