It’s Not What You See That Can Hurt You

As a young man I was intrigued by the “Invisible Man” movies. Filmed in black and white they offered a look into what it would be like to go anywhere and not be seen. Of course you had to be naked as clothing was not invisible, so outside temperatures had to be taken into consideration as well as some other issues. Being invisible gave you the opportunity to strike without warning and that was the premise behind the story line. Realizing the invisible man was in the same room but not knowing when or how he would attack you created a special element of fear.

When we take in a breath of air we inhale a fairly large volume of airborne particles made up from dust generated by the carpet, floor, books, plants, etc. You don’t notice this because these particles because they are invisible to the naked eye. As an example of size, one strand of your hair is about 100 microns in diameter. Particles that are smaller than 20 microns are not visible and the amount of particles under 10 microns in most residential environments ranges from 200,000 particles per cubic foot to over 900,000 particles per cubic foot.

The lungs have a tremendous capacity to filter out a very large percentage of these particles. However, the smaller, less than 1 micron sized particles may remain in the lungs or mucus membranes for a period of time as these tiny particles are not easily expelled. This could be a problem as most bacteria range in size from 1 micron to 20 microns and viruses are usually less than .01 microns in size and these particles will remain in the body for long periods of time.

There is no doubt that larger sized airborne particles, those you can see with the naked eye, can be a real health threat as well. Industrial and heavy commercial construction and manufacturing operations can produce harmful airborne particles larger than 100 microns in size. In most cases, however, individuals working in these conditions wear masks or respirators to reduce the ingestion of these particles.

To remove and or reduce the levels of small, harmful airborne contaminants requires special air filtration systems that use HEPA filters. These commercial grade, certified filters are designed to remove over 99.99% of all particles 0.3 microns and larger and approach that same efficiency below that size range. HEPA filters are used in a wide range of commercial, institutional, medical and industrial applications as well as many residential applications.

Pure Air Systems has been manufacturing commercial grade HEPA and Carbon based air filtration systems since 1985 and is the leader in large capacity HEPA systems. Their HEPA systems range in capacity from 100 CFM to 2,000 CFM and are designed to be used in either a stand-alone configuration or attached to an existing ducted HVAC or air handler  system. For more information on the complete line of HEPA and Carbon based air filtration systems go to their website at: www.pureairsystems.com. Or, follow them on Twitter @pureairsytems or you can contact them on their toll-free number at: 800-869-8025.

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