The commitment to sustainability and health improvement in buildings is an unstoppable process. More than half of the air we breathe in our lives is produced in enclosed spaces, such as homes, offices, or shops. While we only drink 2 liters of water and consume 2 kilos of food per day, we inhale 10,000 liters of air in 24 hours during the same time.
Sustainable engineering and architecture, increasingly popular due to society’s demand, offers tangible improvements in this regard. The use of low-carbon footprint materials and construction products made without toxic compounds are some of the sustainable architecture practices. Paints, varnishes, waterproofing materials, etc., can produce volatile organic compounds harmful to health, including carcinogens. According to the WHO, “air pollution is an invisible killer.” We cannot see what we breathe, and therefore, we do not give it much importance.
As the renovation of homes is a slow process, we find a large number of buildings or homes in cities that have deficiencies to accommodate healthy human activity. This is what we call the Sick Building Syndrome. There may be multiple causes, but the most frequent are poor air quality, temperature far from comfort, low relative humidity, inadequate lighting intensity, or noise.
According to a report from the National Institute of Safety and Hygiene at Work, under the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Spain, some common characteristics of these buildings are almost always having a forced ventilation system common throughout the building or in large sectors, partial recirculation of air, airtight buildings without the possibility of opening windows, improper placement of air intakes, or use of heat exchangers that transfer pollutants from the return air to the supply air.
The most common pollutants tend to be carbon dioxide (CO2), as humans produce it naturally, organic particles or aerosols, smoke that itself contains more than 3000 compounds, including carbon monoxide (CO), aldehydes, nitrogen oxide, etc. The building’s construction and decoration materials, as well as furniture and other elements, can also be the cause of the presence in the air of compounds such as formaldehyde, organic vapors, dust, and fibers (asbestos, glass, textiles). In offices, materials used for work can contribute pollutants to the environment. This is the case of toners, adhesives, ozone released by photocopiers, biocides, cleaning products, deodorants, etc. There are also cases where these pollutants come from outside the building, such as exhaust fumes from cars, sulfur dioxide, or radon. The dust present in indoor air is composed of both organic and inorganic particles, many of which can be classified as fibers. The total dust will depend on ventilation, cleaning, and activity in the area.
There are guidelines and recommendations from the WHO, where maximum values of about 28 substances potentially harmful to health are established. To control air quality, apart from preventing external contamination from entering, easy measures can be taken to improve it. A healthy building, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), should provide approximately 10 liters per second (about 35 M3 /h) of air per person (sedentary activity) to extract human bioeffluents (odors) and CO2. This air supply should pass through filters, especially in urban, agricultural, or industrial environments.
The incorporation of air purification technologies and surfaces that mineralize VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and eliminate common pathogens in contagions, such as viruses and bacteria, is a very effective tool to ensure proper air quality.
Among these technologies, PUROH’s innovation stands out. It is a technology called Open-Air Factor that replicates the natural air disinfection of the atmosphere in a device, in the so-called Advanced Oxidation Processes. This Open-Air Factor technology neutralizes toxic compounds and pathogens in the air and surfaces with the same neutral hydroxyl radicals produced in the troposphere.
Hydroxyl radicals OH·, unlike ions emitted by some devices, are neutral, which means they do not pose any risk of oxidizing metals or affecting computers, appliances, or office or home equipment, unlike conventional ionizers. The advantages compared to HEPA filters are also obvious; they do not act on surfaces, are noisy, consume a lot of energy, and are ineffective in places with constant public renewal.
There are several products that can be adapted to the needs of your building, from compact devices for installation in elevators and homes to air modules for offices and industrial spaces. This technology is very affordable for the benefits it offers since it does not require any construction work to achieve the advantages of a healthy and sustainable building. This air improvement technology would represent having the windows always open without altering thermal or noise comfort.
