Inhale a Healthy Environment
Source: iStock

Inhale a Healthy Environment

Poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to man’s health. Long-term exposure to air pollution can cause chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer, leading to reduced life expectancy. As such, it is a matter of necessity that we know what exactly is wrong, and take active steps to protect ourselves.?

Air pollutants are emitted from a range of both man-made and natural sources. Many everyday activities such as transport, industrial processes, farming, energy generation and domestic heating can have a detrimental effect on air quality. In this post, we take a look at the detriments of air pollution in workplaces, schools and the healthcare system.?

WORKPLACE?

People spend the majority of their time at work, allegedly 2/3 of their waking time. Healthy employees are an important issue as an organization not only for higher productivity and economic benefits but also for organizational culture. People are the most important asset, human capital, to any organization. The majority of the costs related to doing business are attributed to people's costs including salaries and benefits. Thus, means to support their optimal performance are important to organizations. Health in the workplace has become critical as organizations have learned that health conditions significantly affect the performance of their employees.

Employee health affects an organization in various ways, sometimes as direct costs such as healthcare costs and workers' compensation claims but other times as indirect costs such as productivity, absenteeism, presenteeism, and engagement. Healthcare costs have been the most troublesome concern in workplaces due to the huge amount of healthcare costs imposed on employers. There are bigger concerns that exist with huge indirect costs associated with an unhealthy workforce: higher absenteeism and presenteeism, decreased productivity and lower engagement.

While workplaces are the main source of health issues, workplaces also hold an advantageous situation in tackling people’s health in a large group setting rather than working with individuals. Therefore, incorporating an ambience monitoring system will go a long way to educating workers and helping them cultivate the same environment back home.?

To improve the air quality and keep the employees happy and healthy in an office environment – Air purifiers should be installed. Proper air circulation helps improve the working environment. It provides people with a sense of calmness that is of utmost importance when challenging works are at hand. Breathable air that has been circulated around the office space in the right manner keeps the instincts intact and provides the thinking part of the brain to function better.

HEALTHCARE?

In a hospital environment, exposure of both patients and staff to pollutants should be well avoided and monitored to prevent complications in patients with certain cardiopulmonary diseases. Hence, all activities within the hospital environment (both indoor and outdoor) should be well controlled to minimize the exposure of patients and staff at the hospital to air pollutants with respect to the short-term exposure limit. This can be effectively monitored with Ambient Systems.?

Various aspects related to air quality can be monitored with the help of an IoT-based air quality monitoring system. By doing so, there is a reduction in the patient’s tendency to inhale toxicants present in the air that have the potential to impact their health negatively.??

In a healthcare system, analyzing and managing air quality must be of prime concern because the gases and toxic particles in the air can badly affect a patient’s health. In order to mitigate maximum health risks, having a well-developed and highly advanced air quality monitoring system is a must. Ambience monitoring systems check the air quality index to help develop a healthy environment for the patient’s recovery.

SCHOOLS?

Today schools are all placed in highly populated places. Most urban schools are near major roads and sometimes even close to industrial pollution sources. Children spend an average of 6 hours a day in their schools. This implies that they spend a major portion of their active hours exposed to air pollution. The time of exposure and the location can put children at risk of air pollution.

According to a report by UNICEF, every year we lose 600,000 children under the age of five across the world from diseases caused by the effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution. Millions of children suffer from respiratory diseases that diminish their resilience and affect their physical and cognitive development. With such risks at stake to the people of the future, it is necessary to put measures in place in order to mitigate this.?

Why monitor air quality??

Apart from the baseline objective of providing a stimulating work environment, high-quality education and a soothing healing environment, it is an equal responsibility of the management involved in these spheres to provide a safe and healthy environment to grow, study and heal. This helps to achieve the primary goal easier and faster.?

Air pollution is a complex mix of particles and gases: particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are both major components of urban air pollution. There is currently no clear evidence of a safe level of exposure below which there is no risk of adverse health effects. Therefore, further reduction of PM or NO2 concentrations below air quality standards is likely to bring additional health benefits.

Failing to provide good air quality can lead to an increase in long-term and short-term health problems for office workers, students and patients such as: Cough, headache, allergic reactions, complications for people already suffering from breathing-related issues; in rarer cases, life-threatening conditions such as Legionnaire’s disease or Carbon Monoxide poisoning. This implies that there is the need to constantly monitor air and this is where the ambience monitoring system comes in. Here at Nitro Network, we have provided different models of indoor ambience monitors which will help with the following:

  • Give precise data on air quality?
  • Identify major pollution sources if there is one
  • Educate users (workplace, students and patients) on cause, reason and tackling air pollution?
  • Making informed decisions: this is imperative for the management in taking corrective actions and reducing pollutants.?
  • Corrosion-free environment
  • Ensure good health of patients as well as workers
  • Prevention from fire hazard
  • Remote monitoring of AQI
  • For particulate matter monitoring

What these spaces need today is a strong comprehensive network of sensor-based low-cost air quality monitors. Nitro Network can offer accurate environment data of these environments and also provides different models according to budgets, there are also allowances to have customized kits depending on preferences and budgets.?

Visit our marketplace today to explore options on your journey to better air quality in your? environments.?

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Nitro Network的更多文章

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了