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Drawbacks of air-conditioning
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Indoor air quality is something one needs to be concerned about, writes Hema Vijay
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It happens to be a modern day myth – that once you step inside your swank, gleaming and air-conditioned office, away from the smoke and dust on the streets, you are automatically breathing healthy, unpolluted air. The truth is, air-conditioned indoor air has its own risks.
Indoor air pollution can be as toxic as outdoor air pollution. Not just loss of productivity and employee efficiency, poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) affects human health to varying degrees, varying with the pollutant, its concentration and individual sensitivity.
Pollutants
Printers, photocopiers and correction fluids, rugs and furnishings, and scents, hair sprays and cleaning agents release dangerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde into the air, points out Jagdeep Singh, global head, DRI, that manufactures products and systems for energy recovery, IAQ, fresh air treatment, evaporative cooling and humidification. And ineffective filters in the A/C ducts allow fungi formation and dust accumulation, and attract rodents.
Nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and radioactive radon can enter the air from certain building materials.
Take also into account the second-hand carcinogenic environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) hovering in the air. Lead and mercury-based paints used widely are also worrying. Add to this re-circulating body odour and you encounter an air space which is loaded with pollutants.
Since such office spaces happen to be sealed, the space inside does not get reloaded with fresh air and fresh oxygen.
There is a thrust towards energy-efficiency in air-conditioned buildings, but the level of ventilation with the external environment is rather low, notes Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI).
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